A 10-year-old California boy who police say was shot dead by another child over the weekend was killed over a lost bike race, his family says.
Family members identified the victim as Keith Frierson, who was described at a Monday night vigil as a kid who loved sports and was “always laughing.”
While police have already revealed shocking details on the Saturday shooting—including that the gunman was allegedly another 10-year-old using his father’s gun and that he had received help fleeing from the scene from his father—relatives say the attack was even more senseless than authorities initially disclosed.
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It was all over a lost bike race, according to Brittani Frierson, Keith’s mother.
“My baby… asked me can he go outside to ride. Not even 15 minutes later, my baby was gone. All because he was enjoying a race with some other kids he considered his friends on his new bike,” she told KCRA 3.
The 10-year-old alleged shooter had gone into his dad’s car to retrieve cigarettes for him and stumbled upon a gun, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said. He “bragged that his father had a gun” before firing off a shot and allegedly killing Keith Frierson, according to police.
The alleged shooter’s father, identified as Arkete Davis, is suspected of dumping the weapon in a nearby garbage can in a bid to conceal it. Not only was the gun reported stolen in 2017, police said, but Davis was prohibited from owning a firearm due to his status as a former felon.
Frierson’s loved ones placed the blame squarely on Davis for the tragedy, questioning how he could have left a mortally wounded child just lying in the parking lot.
“Instead of aiding my baby, he tried to hide it. He tried to cover it up. He left my baby there,” Brittani Frierson said.
“Not to be missed, all this happened in front of another 6-year-old child who saw the whole thing. The trauma that child experienced always gets overlooked,” Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper wrote of the incident on X, calling it “tragic and completely avoidable.”
“We cannot let this boy’s murder be a one-day news story and forgotten about by tomorrow morning,” he added.
Davis faces charges of child endangerment, accessory after the fact, and several felony firearm-related charges. He is being held on a $500,000 bail and is due in court on Wednesday.
His son was booked into a juvenile detention facility and faces a murder charge.
