MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The search is on for the killer of a future LeMoyne Owen student.
Lamar Smith dreamed of majoring in criminal justice, but he became a victim of crime himself.
"You can't spell, but you are so quick to carry a gun and so quick to take a life," mother Tamiko Smith said.
Tamiko Smith remembers the moment she found out her world changed forever.
Three months ago, she buried her son. Memphis Police said 25-year-old Lamar Smith was killed when two groups of people got into an argument in the parking lot of Winchester Bowling Alley. That argument turned deadly when guns were pulled, and shots were fired.
Smith said her nightmare started with a phone call from Lamar's fiance, telling her Lamar had been shot.
"I started praying," she said. "I started asking God to be there with him, give him what he needs to make him okay."
Smith wasn't prepared for what she saw in the parking lot that night.
"All I see was blue lights and yellow tape," she said. "I see the ambulance. I can see my son laying on the ground, and nobody is really working on him."
Smith did all she could to hold it together.
"Lord, you said if I trust you, I trust you, God, and I know you are not taking my baby from me," she said.
Family members said Lamar screamed, 'I've been hit,' minutes before he took his last breath.
"Since that night, I don't sleep, I'm actually on some meds now to try and help me sleep," she said.
Still haunted by her son's murder, Smith has this message for his killer.
"I've already forgiven you because I want to see my son again one day, but I do feel that you need to be held accountable," she said.
Lamar leaves behind a fiance, a two-year-old year daughter and another daughter on the way.
Anyone who knows who killed 25-year-old Lamar Smith is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH. All calls are confidential.
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