Chicago family still seeks answers after St. Rita senior killed in 2009

David Russell was just 18 years old, with his whole life ahead of him. At that time, he was basically into hanging out with his friends. He'd come home from school. Me and his father were divorced, but he'd go home, do his homework, and then go out with his friends, hang out. When I look at his smile, I just feel happiness because he was a happy kid. He really was. He was always happy. He was never angry. So when I see him, I just see like pure joy because he really loved life. A senior at St. Rita of Cascia High School, David was at an age when life was just beginning. A time for friends, family, and dreams. Moments he never got to live. The vigils were big. They were huge in the beginning, but then they get smaller and smaller as the years pass by. Instead, his family was left with a question that has haunted them for nearly two decades. Why my brother? Why? And, you know, that was the only question, why? Because he was not a bad kid, you know, and it just didn't make any sense to why. It was January 8, 2009. For David's family, it started like any other day. They had plans to see him later that afternoon. Well, from the very morning, I had plans already. David was going to come over with some of his friends and watch TV after he got out of school and did his homework. Those plans would never happen. Instead, David's mother got a phone call that changed her family forever. I was at the laundromat doing laundry. I was trying to get everything done. And I remember I got a phone call there saying that I needed to get home right away. After leaving St. Rita, David got on a bus and made his way home. He was only a few blocks away, near 60th and Springfield, when he was shot 12 times. Why would someone shoot somebody 12 times? I just couldn't understand it at all. I broke down after that. Once I found out how many times, I was just in shock. David was found on the sidewalk with shell casings scattered around him. They found him, of course, on the sidewalk. They said his hood was up, so they probably, he didn't probably. Didn't he have his headphones on too? His headphones, so they said that he didn't probably know what was even coming. Police have said witnesses reported seeing a 1990s four-door Chevy Suburban fleeing the scene just moments after the shooting. They said that they remember hearing, like, tire screech, is how the one neighbor explained it. but the others just there was no like names you know like there was names that were put out there people were brought in but it was nothing was thought of it. But after all these years David's family says they still don't know who pulled the trigger or why. For a little bit they were saying you know maybe it was mistaken identity you know it just didn't make sense they came to the house they looked in his room they investigated my dad let them do whatever they needed to do you know and there was just nothing that they could come up to why. For David's family, the search for answers has never stopped. I'm beyond angry. Sad is every day, you know, we miss him so much every single day. I carry so much fear with me, with my own children now, because I'm just so worried that, because you never think that this situation is going to happen to you, and when it did happen to us, it was just mind-blowing. David has missed birthdays, holidays, and the chance to watch his nieces and nephews grow up. You know, I always tell my kids, what kind of uncle he would be to you guys. You know, I always tell them he would be amazing because he was always hands-on with the three that he got to be with. And for his mother, it's knowing her son never got the chance to build a life of his own. It's hard to, you know, I wish, you know, David would have had a chance to have a family. And it's just hard to see that, you know, because it's like he got ripped out of everything, you know. She can only imagine what David's life might have looked like today. But I don't, honestly, what do you think, I really don't know what he'd be doing. Just succeeding, honestly. Yeah, because he used to say that he would be living on Lakeshore Drive, have a big boat, be in a high rise. He said, he always said, I'll do better, I'm going to do better than my sisters. Yeah, he just wanted to succeed in life. As for why someone would want David dead, it's still unclear. It's hard. It's affected us extremely as a family, as just a whole. You know, we really, really miss him. And we just really, really wish this never happened to him. It happened to our family, but it did. And we have to live with the pain every single day. They wonder whether he was mistaken for someone else, targeted or caught up in something they knew nothing about where we live where we lived where it wasn't like the decent neighborhood but there's gangs all over so it definitely could be that it was a mistaken identity maybe they didn't like the area you know where my brother was walking and you know, with a hoodie on and they just thought he was a gangbanger or you know or maybe like it was due to like a friend that maybe he knew or something like I'm not too sure. So many questions that may never be answered David's family believes someone out there knows something and even the smallest piece of information could help understand what happened to David. I would like to say that if anybody Nobody knows anything. You can see the pain that me, my daughter, my whole family is going through. I would hate to see any family have to deal with what we have to go through, basically, on a daily basis. And like my daughter said, it's torn our family apart. David's family continues to pray for justice and hold on to the hope that one day someone will finally be held responsible. I pray every single day for justice. I pray every night to my brother to protect us. I am very hopeful that one day we will get justice because the person who did this, or the people, we know we don't know if there was multiple people, they don't deserve to get to live an amazing life and my brother is in the ground. And for David's killer, why? Why were you so reckless? Why did you not care to just take someone's life in a blink of an eye? Why? Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for any information that leads to an arrest. If you know anything, call the number on your screen. You can remain anonymous. Les Marino, Fox Chicago.