Nearly two years after her son was murdered, Shamayim Harris is still waiting for justice. So the community leader, fondly known as “Mama Shu,” has put up a billboard in her Michigan town to draw attention to her son’s unsolved case.
According to WDIV, Harris’s son, Chinyelu Humphrey, was shot on Jan. 26, 2021, while on a security watch across the street from his mother’s home. Humphrey was in his vehicle when an unknown person approached and shot and killed him.
With fears that her son’s case would go unsolved like so many in the area, Harris has taken the matter into her own hands. WDIV reports that in mid-December, Harris purchased a billboard asking the city for help to find her son’s murderer.
The towering sign includes an image of Humphrey and a message: “My son was killed. I saw who did it. I told the authorities. No arrests. Help me.” Signed, Mama Shu.
The billboard will be up for one month, costing Harris $3,000, but she says that’s a small price to pay to bring awareness. “I can’t sit around this city and not do nothing about it,” she said, according to WDIV. “It’ll stay up another month if I need for it to stay up another month.”
During a press conference, the community activist recalled her son being taken away from her.
“I want the killers to know that I saw you,” she said, NBC News reports. “I saw you. I saw you run away after you shot my son five times.”
Harris told WDIV she saw two men by her son’s car. One just stared her down for a couple of seconds, and then both men took off running in the dark.
With her reports to the police falling on deaf ears, the mother said she hopes the billboard will get her the help she needs.
“My police report got lost a couple of times. I had to resubmit it twice,” she said, according to WDIV.
“First Highland Park Police had it. And so now it’s down to Wayne County and it’s like no movement. I can’t even get a call back.”
Unfortunately, the lackluster reactions from the local authorities are possibly the norm for the Highland Park area.
Thomas Hargrove with the Murder Accountability Project spoke with WDIV and said, “Highland Park police are not solving most of their murders.”
“It’s a place where most murders go unsolved.”
The Murder Accountability Project tracks the number of solved versus unsolved murders across the country.
Hargrove noted Highland Park’s depressing numbers.
“In 2021, they reported having nine homicides and clearing two of them,” he said. “That’s terrible. In 2020, they reported having six homicides and clearing none of them.”
NBC News reports that Michigan State Police are now the authorities over the case. They stated they “do not have” the official report yet.
Harris and her family have been fixtures in the area for years, and Ellen honored her community efforts. She worked to rebuild the community and make it safer after losing her younger son Jakobi in a hit-and-run.
