BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- It's been more than four years since Marilyn Thomas saw her son Jihad Watters, and she tells FOX 25's Bob Ward that it still hurts every day.
"I wake up every day and this is his picture, I kiss it. I say one day I'll see you again," she said.
On May 20,2010, Watters was just 25 years old and was already a father. A gun attack two years earlier had confined Watters to a wheelchair. He had a criminal history, but at the time of his death he was preparing to take classes at Bunker Hill Community College.
All of that ended in a burst of violence on a front porch in Dorchester four years ago.
Sgt. Detective Joe MacDonald is investigating the murder, and says Watters never saw it coming.
The murder took place in broad daylight, at about 4:30 p.m. Jihad was in his wheelchair, trying to light a grill to make a birthday dinner for his mother. Thomas spoke to her son moments before his death. She told him that she was on her way, but by the time she was dressed she was back on the phone, learning that her son was killed.
"Jihad had his back towards the stairs. He was facing the grill," MacDonald said.
There may have only been one shooter, but police say the killer had help from an accomplice on a scooter.
The up close and personal killing of Watters still shocks his family.
"He's in a wheelchair," Thomas said. "And for you to just walk up and shoot him in the back of his head. How do you sleep with yourself every night?"
Police need witnesses to talk so Jihad's family can have justice.
"It's never going to be okay until I find whoever did that to my child. He didn't deserve this," she said. "Whoever did this, they didn't take his life. They took part of my life. His son's life, his brothers and sisters. We suffer every day. Every day its hard for us to get up, knowing he's not with us."
Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police Crime Stoppers at 800-494-TIPS.