CHICAGO — The mother of one of the three men killed in the Jeffrey Pub hit-and-run spoke out Friday during a balloon release.

Devonta Vivetter, 27, Donald Huey, 25, and Jaylen Ausley, 23, were all killed last Sunday outside of Jeffrey Pub in South Shore. Police said a silver sedan was traveling southbound when it plowed through the three men and another man, who survived.

At this time, police have not located the suspected driver, although the vehicle was found abandoned four blocks away.

During a balloon release for the men Friday, Ausley’s mother, Nichelle Weathers, spoke out for the first time since the tragedy.

“Jaylen always excelled in everything he did,” Weathers said. “Excellence was always his motto and his goal.”

Ausley, a 2021 University of Michigan graduate, was a former student at Gary Comer College Prep and returned to work as a culture specialist in the school’s youth center.

“Jaylen wanted to go into the field of medicine — when he came here and he began to work with the kids here at Comer,” she said. “He came home one day and told me, ‘mom I know what I want to do, I have to help those kids.”

Students and staff at Comer said he was a huge asset.

“His advice, he was a person I went to when I was feeling down and feeling lost and I’m back to feeling along again I feel like I don’t have anyone to talk to because he went above and beyond

On Thursday night, the Chicago Gay Men’s Caucus hosted a vigil to honor the victims.