Family and friends honor 8-year-old Diellon Daniels, victim of fatal drive-by shooting
BATON ROUGE - A child-sized casket was placed at the front of the church where 8-year-old Diellon Daniels laid after he was killed in a drive-by shooting in late November.
Family and friends gathered wearing emerald green, the same color Diellon wore in his family Christmas photos before his passing.
His grandmother, Erica Rayford, spoke at the service, sharing that his life was not in vain.
"I ask you today what are you going to do? See, I don't take this lightly when it comes to watching my baby laying in a casket, I don't take life for granted because this is the third born, that I'm watching with Courtlyn and the family. We share a lot together. There's a lot of things that I want to say but won't say. There's a lot of things I want to do but won't do," Rayford said.
Diellon, also known as 'Dill Pickle' to his friends and family, was killed when four people in a car shot over 20 bullets into his mother Courtlyn's car on Swan Avenue. Two of his siblings were injured and have since been released from the hospital.
His neighbor, Ms. Tonja, spoke of all of the memories she had with him and his siblings.
"I'm just grateful for his life this morning, and my prayer is that his death will not be in vain, that it will be the beginning of us as people, and young men, that we stop killing each other. And I'm just grateful for his life and being granted the opportunity to spend the time that I spent with him and his siblings and his cousins," Tonja said.
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Kendrick Profit, Yancey Jerrell Jr., and Tremmel Harris were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and five counts of attempted murder for the shooting.
19-year-old Roger Parker is still on the run.