(CBS) –Friends say a 68-year-old retired CTA worker would lend a hand to anyone, but his helping attitude may have cost him his life.

Tate Hatchett junior was murdered Saturday night in Gary. CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley reports he was helping a friend deliver pizzas.

Tate Hatchett Jr. had been together with Helen Frierson for 31 years, a partnership severed by his murder Saturday night, making this New Year anything but happy.

“Now, it’s sad,” Frierson said. “I’m trying to keep happy but it’s sad.”

Hatchett, who was retired, was helping a friend make deliveries for Rico’s Pizza. They received an order from an address that turned out to be an abandoned home. That’s when the robbers appeared and Frierson was in the car with her boyfriend.

“They followed him to the car and he asked the guy for the money for the pizza,” Frierson said. “The guy turned around and asked him, give them some money… and when we drove off, that’s when they were shooting.”

On Durbin Street near Third Avenue, Hatchett, who was driving, lost control, ran up the curb, into a yard and rammed into a house.

Neighbor Jeanette Nix saw Hatchett slumped over in the driver’s seat after it crashed.

“We ran up on a lady’s front porch and when we ran up on that front porch, that’s when he stopped and that’s when he died in my lap,” Frierson.

A manager at Rico’s says their delivery crew has suffered a series of attacks. The sign on the door: Driver Wanted.

His partner says the robbers made off with about $150 and a pizza. She says Tate Hatchett Jr. worked more than 20 years at the CTA cleaning “L” cars.