Friends and family mourning the Friday shooting death of a 26-year-old St. Paul man called him a sweet young man who exuded Southern hospitality.

Artrell Tevin Pritchard died of a gunshot wound to the chest after he was shot about 1 a.m. Friday near First Avenue North and Third Street North in the North Loop neighborhood, according to the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office,

His mother, Shirley Pritchard, said Sunday that her son “was the sweetest person you would ever meet. He did a lot of volunteer work,” she said.

Pritchard volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club and the Safe Zone, and most recently he worked providing outreach to homeless teenagers.

“The only reason he would have been there is for his friends, looking out for them,” his mother said. “When I would tell him to be careful and pay close attention to his surroundings, he would say, ‘Mom, I grew up here. Everybody knows me, they won’t hurt me.’ ”

Police say their preliminary investigation into Pritchard’s death shows that there was a disturbance between two groups of people that escalated into gunfire in which Pritchard was shot. He was taken to the hospital and died a few hours later.

Isaac Combs, who previously worked at the Boys and Girls Club of Mt. Airy, was a mentor to Pritchard from the time he was 13 years old.

“He was one of those young people who made my job easy,” Combs said.

The two kept in touch after Artrell grew too old for the program.

Combs said over his years working at the Boys and Girls Club there were two young men he worked with that he grew especially close to. Artrell was one of them.

“I always said if I had a son, I hoped they turned out to be like the two of them,” Combs said.

DeAndre White, a classmate and teammate of Pritchard’s, was the other young man.

“He had a good heart. He was a kind person,” White, 28, said. “He was such a loyal person to his friends and had a good sense of humor.”

Pritchard and White went to Arlington Senior High and played basketball and football together.

After White returned from college, they made a point to catch up with each other about once a week, often to play basketball.

“He was like a gentle giant. He had the type of personality you would just warm up to him right away,” White said. “Cool. Really soft-spoken, bigger dude, but a good person.”

The first day Pritchard came into the Boys Club, Combs could tell he was self-conscious about his weight and lacked some self-confidence. But at the same time, Combs said, Pritchard seemed brave because he did not hesitate to put himself out there and introduce himself to people.

Over the years, Combs saw that confidence grow. When Pritchard was 14, he applied to work at the club for the summer and received the job, which Combs said started a career helping young people.

Most recently, Pritchard worked in outreach for homeless teenagers.

“He was responsible for going into places in the community, in the neighborhood, under bridges, near train tracks, in the wooded areas, seeking out where young people were sleeping,” Combs said.

Pritchard would carry clothing like socks, gloves, boots, hats and coats and would give them to the homeless youth. He would then return later with other items, such as food.

“The whole goal was to link that person back to resources in the community and get them out of the elements,” Combs said.

When he thinks of Pritchard, he thinks of someone who was a wonderful friend, whose respect for elders was “through the roof” and who exuded Southern hospitality even as a boy, Combs said.

“We were close to public housing (at the club) where most of our kids came from so at night he would volunteer to walk the little kids, those 9 and younger, home, at least two to three times a week if their parents couldn’t come get them,” Combs said.

When Combs got married, Pritchard saved money to buy a suit and was a groomsman.

“He was just a great, great guy. It hurts so bad,” Combs said, adding, “He was destined to be a great, upstanding member of society. He was destined to be a great father. He had already proven to be an awesome friend.”