DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. — A Dinwiddie County mother faces an emotional rollercoaster every October 14 — celebrating her oldest son's birthday while mourning the unresolved murder of another son on the same date two years ago.
"It's a heartache, a hurt, and a pain that you can't describe or explain. And you never get over it. People say, oh, it's gonna get better. I'm still looking for when," said Cynthia Sykes.
At 10:22 p.m. on October 14, 2023, Walter Sykes III and a passenger were sitting in his car at Patrick and 6th Streets in Petersburg when both men were shot multiple times.
"The manner that my son was taken away from us, no dog shouldn't have been done like that," Sykes said.
Sources say Sykes III was hit more than a dozen times and pronounced dead on scene. His passenger went to the hospital and survived.
Cynthia Sykes believes the passenger knows exactly what happened and is frustrated that detectives haven't pressed him harder for information.
"When the detectives went to question that person while they were in the hospital, because they said he had life-threatening injuries and all the time it was his shoulder, you have to be mighty close to get hit in the shoulder. But you wouldn't talk to them because when the detective came to my house, he told me, 'We went to see him and he wouldn't tell us,'" she said.
The grieving mother is making a public plea for anyone with information to come forward.
"I pray to God, if you know God, that you will—not just him, but people in the area that had door cameras on their houses—I pray to God that God will put so much pressure on your heart, your mind and your mouth, that your mouth would run like water and you tell the truth about what you saw, what you know, and what happened," Sykes said.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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