Columbia mother asks community to come forward to help solve son’s 2017 murder

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia mother is asking community members to be brave and come forward to the police to help solve her son's 2017 murder.

"It has really affected us ... We just need someone to speak up and say what they saw," Vivian Morgan said. "I guess they fear for their life, which is understandable. But I feel like we need to get justice for Jamar."

Jamar Hicks was born in Minneapolis in 1990 and moved to Columbia with his mother when he was 5 years old.

"He was a kind and sweet young man," Morgan said. "He was very friendly, spoke to everyone, and had a crazy laugh that everyone loved. You just heard him coming."

His mother says growing up, her oldest son loved playing sports, including soccer, basketball and football. Hicks attended Shepard Boulevard Elementary School, Lange Middle School and graduated from Hickman High School.

After high school, his mother says Hicks worked in the shop at Bob McCosh. She said he loved cleaning and working with cars. He drove an Infiniti G35 Silver Coupe. His mother says he was driving that car the morning he died.

When shots were fired along Trimble Road in east Columbia around 3 a.m. on July 16, 2017, Columbia Police Lt. Matt Gremore said, officers were nearby at the IHOP and immediately ran over. When officers arrived, they found that a woman and a man in their 20s and Hicks had all been shot.

"I think they were ambushed, that's what it looked like to me," Gremore said. "I believe this was a targeted event."

Gremore said Hicks was shot multiple times and was found inside the car. Police say the woman who was shot ran into the Break Time convenience store, and the other man who was shot was found nearby.

"The belief is they were all shot while inside the car," Gremore said. "Two were able to run out and get out of the car ... you could tell that the car had come across the road and had rested after hitting the curb here where it came to a stop."

Gremore wouldn't share a description of the suspect's car but said police collected evidence at the scene, including shell casings, Hick's car, the victims' clothing and surveillance footage from nearby businesses.

"There [are] multiple people I believe are involved in this and multiple people that we would want to talk to, to get the truth out of them of what happened," Gremore said.

Police say all three of the victims were taken to the hospital. Hicks' friends survived, but he was pronounced dead not long after the shooting.

His mother remembers the night vividly.

"A friend of mine called me at three in the morning and told me her son was there," Morgan said. "He said that Jamar had been shot, and he wasn't breathing. And it didn't even really register with me, I was just like, 'what does he mean?'"

She said a friend drove her to a local Break Time, but they didn't see her son's car, and she thought there may have been a mistake. But when they drove to the convenience store at the corner of Trimble and Brickton Roads, she saw the Infiniti G35 Silver Coupe.

"I saw the Break Time and all of the police cars and all of the people, and I got out of the car and I ran to his car and the police told me I couldn't go, to stop," Morgan said. "And I said, 'I'm Jamar's mom and that's my son's car,' and they told me he wasn't there. He was at the hospital."

She says they immediately left and went to the hospital. She said she thinks it was about an hour before the doctors came to speak with her.

"The doctors came out and they told me he was gone," Morgan said. "And I just couldn't believe it. I was like, 'You have the wrong person, it's not my son.'"

She said when she was led back to say goodbye to her son and see his body, Hicks was surrounded by police.

"They wouldn't let me touch him because I guess they needed to make sure they check him for prints and all kinds of things," Morgan said. "I was not able to hug or kiss my son goodbye, and that was the most horrible situation. So it's still just unbelievable that he's gone."

Morgan said she's heard different rumors of the reason behind the shooting throughout the years. Some people have said the shooting was an accident, others have said it was targeted or over a girl.

"I've just heard rumors, and rumors and rumors, but all I keep hearing is that he was such a good person and they don't know why someone would want to do this," Morgan said. "Nobody understands. It would be different if he was, like, into gangs and stuff like that, but he just went to work and took care of his kids."

It's been more than eight years of praying and waiting for justice for Morgan and her family, including Hicks' three children. He left behind two daughters and a son who are now 16, 15 and 12 years old.

"He was a great dad," Morgan said. "He loved to go places and do things with the kids."

She recalled trick-or-treating with one of Hicks' younger brothers, along with her oldest son and his children. She says every year for Christmas, her grandkids ask for items with their dad's photos on them.

Even though Hicks is no longer alive, his presence can still be found throughout his mother's home. She has a canvas photo print of her son in the center of her living room. She says she passes by the photo and says good morning to her son every day.

Photos of Morgan's late son, along with her two other childre,n line the walls of her living room and hallway. She pointed out a photo on a table in her living room of the four of them that was taken a few years before Hicks died.

"This was our last family picture we took," Morgan said. "He said 'Mom, you better get the picture because this is the last picture I'm going to take.'"

Morgan is pleading for someone who witnessed what happened that morning to speak up and go on record to testify. She says Hicks was a caring person, and if roles were reversed, she believes he would speak up and do what's right.

"I'm just hoping that it happens for me so I can let him rest in peace," Morgan said. "I don't want anyone else to go through this. So, without catching the person that did this, they could be ruining more families."

CPD is investigating 17 unsolved homicide cases with 19 victims dating back to 1985. A prior list given to ABC 17 News did not include Dominick Roland's homicide from 2019. After following up on the status of this case with CPD, it has been added to the list.