A 71-year-old man was shot to death Sunday morning at his home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side.

Fredell Bryant was at his home on the 5200 block of S. Green Street when he heard a knock at the door around 6 a.m. He went to answer it and was shot by an assailant at the doorstep, according to his son-in-law, who was in the house at the time.

"We heard him ask 'Who is it?' at the door. No response. Then he said 'Who is it?' real loud, nothing. And I guess he was going to open the door to see who it was and we heard two loud shots," said Bryant's son-in-law, Ron Dean.

"When we got upstairs, that's when we saw him lying on the floor. He was unconscious. No response, nothing," Dean said.

Bryant, a father of nine and a retired construction worker, was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition with two gunshot wounds to the chest. He later died, police said.

Family members called his killing "senseless," noting that nothing was taken from the house. Bryant had lived on the same block for 40 years. His family said he didn't bother anyone, kept to himself and was a respected member of the community.

"Everybody in the neighborhood loved him and knows him very well," said Barbara Fuller, Bryant's sister-in law. "I can't understand what's wrong with this sick world. Why would they just come kill a man like that? Why would they just take his life away?"

"He did anything for anybody," added Tracy Hancock, Bryant's niece. "That's why he got up to open his door at six in the morning."

No suspects are in custody and the investigation into his death is ongoing.