Keandra Lewis was on her way home from work when she saw a Birmingham Fire and Rescue truck with emergency lights flashing in her rearview mirror.

She pulled over to let the rescue truck pass, not knowing that her first-born child – 22-year-old DeCarlos Perez Smith – was in the back, fighting for his life.

It wasn’t until hours later that she would learn her son had been shot and was on life-support at UAB Hospital.

She rushed to his side and pleaded with him to keep fighting.

“He was already really gone but they just gave us a chance to say our last words and give his dad time to come in from North Carolina,” Lewis said.

“I just told him I loved him and to keep fighting. He always pushed through.”

Smith was pronounced dead at 7:22 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, at UAB, just 24 hours have he was shot.

Seven months later, Smith’s slaying remains unsolved. It would mean so much to Lewis to know who killed her son, and why.

“I don’t have a clue why my son is not here anymore,” Lewis said. “I just know he’s not here, and that’s tough. I’m lost.”

Smith grew up on Birmingham’s west side and graduated from Wenonah High School. His own son was 2 months old when Smith was killed.

On the Thursday of the shooting, Lewis was at work but said she’d talked with her son throughout the day. He had gone to a job interview at Applebee’s in Fultondale, where they lived, and had gotten the job.

Afterward, he dropped his younger brother off at a job interview at Waffle House.

“That was the last time we got to see him or talk to him,” Lewis said.

Smith’s shooting happened at 6:45 p.m. that Thursday in the 300 block of 25th S.W. in Germania Park.

West Precinct officers responded to the neighborhood after the city’s gunfire detection system – Shot Spotter – alerted them to round fired in that area.

The circumstances surrounding the murder remain a mystery to police and Smith’s loved ones.

“He was so much fun, so full of life. He was so loved, and he gave out so much love,” his mother said. “He was so giving, and he’d been that way since he was little.”

“The person he was, it’s not adding up,” Lewis said. “I don’t know if it was a robbery gone bad or what.”

“I don’t know why my grandbaby is without his father,” she said. “I don’t know why my other children are without their brother.”

Lewis said she is so thankful to Birmingham police for continuing to look to provide her and her family with answers.

 “It helps our family so much,” she said. “It will never bring him back, but there would be much more peace if we knew why.”

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest.