Weeks away from earning a degree in zoology from Michigan State University and days away from interviewing with the Austin Zoo, Isaiah Kirby was about to see his dreams become a reality.

But the 21-year-old from Owings Mills didn’t make the interview, and his family won’t see him walk across the stage after local police in Michigan fatally shot him on April 15.

Kirby played with sharks and snakes as a toddler and focused on herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians, in school, his family said. Now the future he’d been working so hard toward will not come, and his family was left to figure out why.

“He was loved deeply by his family and friends, and he deserved the opportunity to graduate, pursue his goals, and live the life he was working so hard to build — a life with just him and his snakes,” Karyn Kirby, Isaiah Kirby’s mother, said in a statement.

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A little after 6 p.m. on April 15, East Lansing Police Department officers responded to a theft at a business around Lake Lansing and Abbot roads in East Lansing, Michigan, officials said in a statement. That also led them to a non-fatal stabbing in the same area, police said.

Police shot the suspect in the stabbing, whom officials identified as Kirby. East Lansing Police said they are reviewing video footage of the incident, which will be released in the coming weeks along with the names of the officers involved.

The Michigan State Police are investigating the case. Neither the Michigan State Police nor the East Lansing Police shared how many times Kirby was fired on or how many officers were involved in the shooting.

Karyn Kirby said she counted at least 17 bullet wounds on her son’s body. That, coupled with how swollen his face was, led to her decision to cremate him and not hold a public viewing.

“I cannot unsee what I saw. I cannot unhear what I heard. No mother should ever have to hear a body bag being unzipped after her child was gunned down in the street by the police,” Karyn Kirby said.

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Jeremiah Wilcox, a spokesperson for the Ingham County Medical Examiner’s Office, said in an email Kirby’s case remains under investigation and directed additional questions to law enforcement.

The Kirby family is being represented by Teresa A. Caine Bingman. On the family’s behalf, she thanked Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz for contacting Karyn Kirby and offering his condolences and students who gathered to honor his life on April 23.

“The outpouring of support reflects the positive impact Isaiah had on this community and the collective call for truth and justice,” Bingman said in a statement.

Bingman said her office is conducting an independent investigation and encouraged anyone with information, video or audio related to the incident to send it to the Justice for Isaiah Kirby tip line at 1-844-9ISAIAH (1-844-947-2424).

“Isaiah Kirby’s life mattered. The support of this community, combined with full transparency, is essential to ensuring accountability and justice,” Bingman said.