DAYTON — The 33rd Annual Homicide Victim Memorial Service in December is an event Christine Williams is not looking forward to attending.
>>PHOTOS: Mother of son killed in hit-and-run hoping someone comes forward
Five months ago, her son, 15-year-old Adrian, died of injuries suffered in a hit-and-run crash as he and a group of friends were running from McIntosh Park. They were attending a birthday party when gunfire prompted people there to run for cover.
“I would never thought I would be in this position,” she told News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis on Thursday night.
Thursday afternoon, the Dayton Police Department issued a plea to the public for help in identifying the car -- and hopefully, the driver -- involved in the crash that occurred the night of June 17.
“You know, I’ve had friends attend [the memorial service], but never thought I was going to be a recipient of that,” she said. The intent of the service is to help memorialize those whose lives have been lost to violence and to help survivors during the holiday season, Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck’s office has said. The service includes the presentation of ornaments to a special memorial tree.
>> RELATED COVERAGE: 15-year-old dead after hit-and-run; police still pursuing lingering questions
These days, Williams spends a lot of time studying pictures of Adrian, recalling that her firstborn liked to dress up for Halloween. He made appearances as a pirate, a zombie, and at least once as Michael Myers, the man who seemingly couldn’t be killed.
Adrian had just started his freshman year in high school and had taken a liking to the culinary arts, his mother said.
“He was a cook around the house,” Williams said. “If it wasn’t me cooking, it was him cooking.”
Her son played basketball, baseball, soccer, and was trying to get into football, she said.
“He was active in everything,” she said, including a Masonic youth organization.
Williams said she’s continuing to keep her promise to Adrian, who was a big brother to two siblings.
“I’m still trying to fight to find out who did it,” she said, referring to the crash that ultimately took Adrian’s life. “I made that promise, the day I saw him at the funeral home, that I was going to keep fighting. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”
That promise is also why she uses social media to push messages about the incident and pleas to the public weekly, she said.
“I feel like someone knows something. Just the presence that I heard that was there that night, someone knows something,” she said.
“I feel like those who weren’t afraid as adults did come forward. I feel like . . . the real truth is within the kids. And I know that night was scary. I mean, of course, you hear gunshots, you know, vehicles in the streets . . . yelling, screaming, I can only imagine.
“But at some point, I need someone to be brave enough to say, hey, you know, someone did lose their life, a family is hurting. And for me, I will never be the same. That was my firstborn. He was the one who made me grow up.
“But I think it will bring some peace for me. If somebody . . . comes forward and says something.”
If you have any information about the hit-and-run, you are asked to call Dayton police at (937)-333-1104 and ask for Detective Miniard.