CBS3 Mysteries: Nearly 9 years later, Troy Smith Jr.'s family still hoping for justice
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia man who was out with his uncle was ambushed by armed robbers and killed. Almost nine years later, Troy Smith Jr.'s murder remains unsolved.
His family is not giving up hope that justice will be served.
"He was our protector, our watch over," mother Renee Whitmore said.
Smith was driven and ambitious. His family says he had plans to become either a corrections officer or a truck driver.
"He was a kid that said, 'Mom, I am trying to see the world eventually one day,'" Whitmore said.
The young man from Northwest Philadelphia also made sure his younger siblings were setting goals.
"He always asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow older?'" sister Monè Whitmore said. "He was always reminding me to make sure you want to be and you follow it."
On June 6, 2014, Smith and his uncle were in West Philadelphia when an armed robber stopped their car at 54th and Hunter Streets and ended up shooting both men.
The next morning, the family got word there had been a shooting but there was no information on Smith. They showed up at the hospital where Smith's uncle was admitted. They thought, hoped maybe Smith wasn't involved.
And then, a Philadelphia Police Department detective called with news his mother wasn't prepared for. There was confusion.
"My vision was so out of it that I didn't even realize that my daughter and my aunt were running to me," Renee Whitmore said, "that I was running past them. My daughter had to grab me in the midst of the air and hold me and said, 'Mom, we have to go to the medical center to see if that's Troy.' His father says to me the medical center is the morgue, Renee, and at that moment, I just started breaking down. I don't know why, but I just felt it that my son was gone."
Smith was taken to the morgue after medics pronounced him dead just after midnight on June 7, 2014.
"I used to couldn't talk about it," Renee Whitmore said. "But I'm doing so much better. I am, I'm doing so much better."
Renee Whitmore's mission is to keep her son's name alive.
A new sculpture is proudly hung in the family's living room.
A flood of memories comes rushing in when thinking about Smith.
"Always was in to something," Whitmore said. "'Renee, get your son. Renee, Troy is doing this. Renee, Troy took Uncle William's keys and backed the car up out of the parking lot.'"
The ultimate family man, Smith's family still holds out hope his killer can be found.
Sadly, two years after Smith's death, his uncle he was with that night and was also shot, died from complications from those injuries.
"I didn't think this could ever happen to me," Whitmore said. "I raised my kid to not be around that kind of environment and you know to always be aware because we live in a crazy city."
If you have information on the homicide case of Smith, call Philadelphia police at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
