BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — This October 9th, Isaiah McKnight would have turned 26.
It's clear how loved he was; family friends fabricated a blanket, framed art enshrined his signature smile. Melissa McKnight, Isaiah's mom, loved him beyond measure.
"Isaiah was a beautiful person. Kindhearted, compassionate, supportive, encouraging. He would give you the shirt off of his back," Melissa told WMAR-2 News.
A Milford Mill grad, Isaiah became the man of the house when his father passed, 10 days after Isaiah's 16th birthday.
Most people take off during the holidays, but Melissa took the first few weeks of January to spend time with Isaiah, who had his sights on CDL school. Since he began to talk, Isaiah dreamt of driving a truck, and making a go of it with his own business.
"And I left that morning. He gave me his sloppy kiss that he always gives me, you know, like, 'I love you. I love you.' We'll see each other soon, but I have a surprise for you. That's what he told me," Melissa McKnight said.
The surprise was his very own truck. On January 8, 2020, he'd been working on it outside the house, having just bought it that exact day. But as Melissa recalls, something just didn't feel right that day.
Isaiah was with an associate inside the cab of a U-Haul, jumper cables hooked up to the semi, to give it a jump. Two people, wearing masks, banged on the window.
"It causes a commotion. It actually startles both of them and then again without any warning, the person just starts shooting into the U-Haul truck," Cpl. Dona Carter of the Baltimore County Police Department told WMAR-2 News.
At first, Melissa thought it was a car backfiring. Isaiah and the 19-year-old man he was with were shot.
The person Isaiah was with survived after going to the hospital, but McKnight died at the scene.
The suspects didn't try to steal the truck, police said, so it seems like they were targeting Isaiah, or the person with him. For half a decade, the case has gone unsolved. It shattered Melissa's world, and things still haven't been the same.
"Isaiah passed around 11, 11:30 that night. I want to get home before it gets dark because I'm not sure how much you all know when he passed away, I was actually in the house, and just to hear those gunshots… that's why it's so hard for me to come home at night. It's hard for me to sleep at night, especially around that time," Melissa McKnight said.
Recently, though, there is movement. The detective who originally looked into Isaiah's case is retiring. But the new detective may have something.
"He actually identified a piece of evidence that he is hoping that we might be able to do further DNA analysis on, and consulted with our unit. There's going to be some DNA testing, just in the hopes that maybe we could get DNA of a suspect. It's an item that the suspect touched," Cpl. Carter said.
Melissa's family is tight-knit, and in Isaiah's memory, they've donated to other young people who want to get into the trucking industry. They also pooled together their own reward money, hoping it leads to a resolution.
"We're going on six years, and it still seems like yesterday and it hurts, but any information you can have don't have anyone in this. I won't wish this on no one to feel the pain that I feel as a parent," Melissa McKnight said.
Baltimore County Police are still looking into Isaiah's case, working to give Melissa McKnight closure. If you have any information which can help detectives, call them at 410-887-3943.
