DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Two men watched their victim for two hours before shooting him to death, police said.
And authorities said the one thing they took was boxes of marijuana-infused edibles.
Steven Mayer, 30, was asleep when the men broke into his home and killed him in September, police said.
They then left the scene.
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Mayer’s family wants the suspects caught and police are hoping someone will recognize the men caught on surveillance video.
Police said there were a total of three suspects who they think surprised the victim, who was sleeping at the time.
Mayer's best friend, Yordi Warner talked to Channel 2's Liz Artz through tears Tuesday. It was his childhood friend who was shot and killed in this home off philips road last month.
"He was killed in the privacy of his own home,” Warner said.
Police said the three suspects cased Mayer’s house for hours before going in through a basement window.
“I think they were out there mustering up the courage,” said DeKalb County Police Detective Darius Ward.
Ward said one man stood guard outside while two men, armed with guns, went in to rob the home.
Ward thinks Mayer woke up and startled the intruders.
"I believed they panicked. These guys didn't look like professionals at all,” Ward said. “It seemed like it was their first rodeo."
Detectives think robbery was the motive because, they said, the men left the house with boxes filled with marijuana-infused edibles.
The 30-year-old's family described him as goofy, highly intelligent and an entrepreneur at heart.
“I'm going to miss laughing with my brother,” Warner said.
The family has come together to raise thousands of dollars they said will be used as reward money to catch the men who stalked and then ambushed their loved one.
“Six months from now, you don't want this to happen to your family. A year from now, you don't want this to happen to your family," Warner said.