BUFFALO, N.Y. — Memories of 21-year-old Ronald Benjamin Evans, or "Benji," live on in pictures in his mother's home.
The pictures are of a young boy with big dreams. "His goal was to be a sports agent," said Benji's mother, Karen Owens.
In 2010, Benji was attending college at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina.
That summer, he was home in Buffalo preparing for a new semester.
Owens' life changed forever on the night of September 1.
"He was coming home, I guess, right outside our house it happened, his key was in the door," she said.
Benji was coming home from the store when he was shot outside his home on Chelsea place.
"It appears that someone was trying to rob him, and that someone was waiting for him, and they attempted to rob him," Owens said.
Owens was inside when the shooting happened.
"I look up and see all these lights, and I open the door, and he's in the street and people were standing around. There is blood in the street, and he's lying in the street in front of our house," she said.
Benji was rushed to Erie County Medical Center and fought for his life for 16 days.
"He was unconscious for awhile, I think a few days. But when he came to, he was alert, he was aware, but he couldn't move, and he couldn't talk, and that's the way he was for those next 16 days," she said.
Benji passed away in the hospital on September 16.
"Everyday is a struggle," Owens said. "Every single day to get up is a struggle."
Owens said no one was ever arrested for Benji's murder. She says like many similar cases, people would not cooperate with police.
"Nobody's coming forward with anything, which hinders any investigation, which is upsetting every time I think about it, because somebody had to know something. Somebody was there, somebody pulled the trigger," she said.
"To me, everyone that had a part in it. Everyone that knows something and they're not sharing it, they are murderers too."
In the mean time, Owens wanted to send a message to the person that took her son's life:
"You can't be happy, and it's just, come forward, own up to what you did. Be a man about what you did. You were man enough to pull the trigger, be a man enough to own up to what you did."
If you have any information on this case you are asked to contact the Buffalo Police Confidential Tip Line at (716)-847-2255.
MORE ON WGRZ.COM