PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The tributes are coming in for the young man from Pittsford who was shot and killed in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Ryan Realbuto was murdered in what D.C. Metro Police suspect was a botched robbery.

“Ryan was very passionate about doing any sort of community service. He was not motivated by making large sums of money, but instead thrived being able to help people in need,” wrote his aunt Lynn Fenicchia on the Go Fund Me page she created. “Ryan had a gentle soul and was a kind human being filled with nothing but innocence. Our hearts are completely broken by this devastating loss. All that Ryan was trying to do was help people and his precious life was taken by senseless violence.”

Realbuto graduated from Pittsford Mendon High School and St. Bonaventure University and he was volunteering with Capuchin Franciscan Volunteer Corps, a Catholic organization in D.C. He was killed late Thursday night after he left a church youth event.

D.C. Police and Realbuto’s family say he was walking home on South Dakota Avenue northeast with two friends when a car pulled up and demanded money.

Police say when Realbuto couldn’t produce any, one of the suspected robbers shot him. The police report says Realbuto was shot in the stomach and died about three and a half hours later at a D.C. hospital.

News10NBC spoke to his mother Friday night.

“All because of one person that felt he had the right to take a gun and shoot it at my son and take somebody’s life. An innocent life,” his mother Janet said.
  
Realbuto’s alma mater emailed students writing, “The [St. Bonaventure] university community extends its deepest condolences to… family and friends.” It said Realbuto’s degree was in sociology and criminology.

St. Bonaventure is going to have a vigil for Realbuto this week.

His work in D.C. was at Don Bosco Cristo Rey School. On Facebook, the school posted Realbuto “Worked with our 9th grade students… to help prepare them to enter the workforce…” and was known as “Someone who was willing to help with any challenges. He will be deeply missed.”

This year in D.C., robberies are up 30%. Homicides are down 62%. And for the past 10 years, D.C. Police make an arrest in six to seven out of every 10 murders. Over the same period of time, D.C. averaged 171 murders a year.

D.C. Metro police have a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

Realbuto’s aunt started a gofundme page to raise money for his parents to cover the costs of his medical expenses as surgeons tried desperately to save his life, the transportation of getting Ryan’s body back to Rochester, legal fees they will incur throughout the investigation, and the funeral costs of burying their son. The goal is $125,000 and so far they have raised over $112,000.