Well, really, what does one expect his mother to say?
And, as has been brought up earlier - maybe Dad needs to weigh in here. If this can even be determined.
he was an aspiring rapper, started getting his life back together, wanted to go to college, working to save money for his child(ren) and a nice boy that just so happened to fall in with the wrong crowd.
am I close?
Right you are. This woman is in shock, and she probably still has images of her son as an innocent six-year-old. Unless the mother says something really outrageous, it is best to just quietly ignore her.