A Carmichael family is mourning the death of their 21-year-old son after he was stabbed to death Friday night outside of a house party in Roseville.
Placer County sheriff's detectives say Andrew Michael Petrenko and several friends were headed to a large house party on Lanie Court when Petrenko exchanged words with a driver of a white sedan. Investigators believe the driver got out of the car and stabbed Petrenko three to four times before driving off.
"He was very good person," said Nadia Petrenko, Andrew Michael Petrenko's mother. "He tried to help everybody, everybody. He'd see something happening to somebody and he'd say mom we have to help them, mom we need to pray for them."
Nadia Petrenko said she had big hopes for her youngest son, the only one of her three children born in the United States.
"I wanted to come to America, because the Ukraine was the Soviet Union," she said. "I never had opportunity to have a good job, my family we didn't have freedom. I wanted my children to have freedom."
Nadia Petrenko arrived in the United States in 1993, one month before Andrew was born.
"I'm so sorry, I loved my son," she cried.
Nadia Petrenko created a memorial to her son in front of her Carmichael home. Pictures of her son sit in front of his prized possession, a blue motorcycle, as candles burn in his honor.
"I know my God never make mistake," she said. "He took him, it was his time."
Nadia Petrenko said her son used to run with a bad crowd, but he had changed his life and regularly attended church. She also said he planned to become a truck driver like his father.
"Last week he passed medical exam and wanted to get permit this week, he promised this Monday to go take test," she explained.
The Placer County Sheriff's Department is still investigating and has made no arrests.
Petrenko had these words for her son's killer:
"I want to say to this person, go to God, I forgive him," she said.
