Rewind To The Crime: Why was Demencio Lewis murdered?

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WASHINGTON - It has been nearly three years since a model and aspiring rapper was gunned down in Southeast D.C. in a vicious attack. Demencio Lewis was making his mark in the entertainment world when his life was taken in a hail of gunfire.

You could say without getting much of an argument that Lewis had his own brand of style. The 23-year-old was a person who couldn't get enough of the fashionable stitches and colors that made him stand out.

"He loved modeling, but he wrote songs, he did music, so many things," said Lewis' mother, Sharita. "He was just talented. He made his own clothes."

FOX 5 first spoke with Demencio's mother two years ago just before the first anniversary of his death. She said she is at a loss to explain her son's murder. At this point, nearly three years later, she knows little more than she knew back then.

"The detectives, the law enforcement, have not been on my side with this," she said. "It's not just another black young man that is dead on the street. It is nothing like that. My son had no affiliation with drugs, violence, gangs. Nothing at all. So it bothers me that justice is not done."

Demencio was openly gay, which his mother thinks may have had something to do with his death.

"Absolutely, because he has such a good heart, a good spirit," said Sharita. "Just because he was a gay man, he still was Demencio. He's still was my son, my baby and he wouldn't hurt anyone. His heart was pure. Violence or causing any hurt, harm or danger to anyone - he wouldn't do that."

D.C. police have said very little about what may have happened to Demencio on March 13, 2014. But this much is clear - on the night he was killed, he had dinner with his mother and the two were enjoying their company together when he got a call on his cell phone. He told his mother Chris was waiting downstairs and he would be right back.

But within minutes, an officer nearby heard multiple gunshots and found Demencio lying in the middle of Sayles Place in Southeast D.C. His mother said he had been shot 27 times. It was a vicious killing and the motive remains elusive.

"The last memory I have of my son, because we were extremely close, he left out the door telling me he would be right back and we were having a wonderful dinner - salmon and steak - and he went out the door laughing and smiling and blowing kisses at me," Demencio's mother recalled. "And I said, 'Hurry up back.' I did not realize that would be the last time I would see my son."

At the time, D.C. police said the gunmen may have left the area in a Hyundai Sonata. Sharita said she has been told two guns were used.

"It bothers me that justice is not done and I just hope my voice can be the voice to the voiceless because a lot of mothers are suffering just like I am and justice is not served," she said. "I want that for my son. I hear him speak that to me frequently that he wants justice and so do I."

Lewis was 23 years old when he was killed. There is a $25,000 reward for the person who can tell his mother and police why he was killed.