Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

That's the way to describe a 17-year-old teen from Washington, D.C., being gunned down earlier this week for a new pair of Air Jordans (shown above) that his mom got him as an early Christmas gift.

According to The Washington Post, James Anthony Smith was shot on a basketball court at the Frederick Douglass Community Center on Monday evening in D.C.. He died about two hours later at a local hospital.

Smith's mom, Benita Smith, said the gunman clearly killed her son over his sneakers because they were taken off James's feet, as his body was found shoeless. Police Chief Peter Newsham seemingly agrees, telling the newspaper that they think robbery was the motive behind this shooting, adding that no arrests have been made as of earlier this week.

“He was an all-American kid,” Benita Smith told The Washington Post. “He loved his red shoes. He loved basketball. He loved his computer games. I can’t believe he was killed, all over a pair of shoes.”

She added that the shooter “just wasted another person’s life, as well as his own.”

She purchased the red Air Jordans for $220 and gave them to her son as an early Christmas gift, which he only got to enjoy for four days.

James Anthony Smith is survived by his mom, older brother and stepfather, who all lived with the 17-year-old.

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