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'Never see my son again' | Mom grieves teen killed weeks before graduation

Investigators said a group of kids and teenagers were playing a game with water guns and water balloons, when the fight turned into actual gunfire on Friday, May 7.

ATLANTA — A mother is grieving the loss of her son after he was killed in a shooting following a water gunfight at Kenwood Park.

Investigators said a group of kids and teenagers were playing a game with water guns and water balloons, when the fight turned into actual gunfire on Friday, May 7.

The family of 18-year-old Daquan Gillett, of Riverdale, said he was shot and killed when gun fight turned deadly. His death came just two weeks before his graduation.

"I don't know how I'll do it. Oh my goodness," Angela Wilson, Gillett's mother expressed.

There are no words powerful enough when a parent loses a child. 

"I'll never get to see my son again," Wilson said through tears.

His mom said she is filled with grief and disbelief.

"I don’t live like this. We don’t live like this. So, why should my son have to die like this," she said.

Wilson said she barely let her sons play with water guns growing up -- that's how serious she was about keeping them from violence and out of harm's way. 

RELATED: 'We all loved Daquan': Community in shock after Riverdale student killed weeks before graduation

"It’s not fair that that’s how my child lost his life, from something I tried to keep them away from. From being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Wilson said. 

Gillett's twin brother held him after he was shot, which is a kind of trauma that never leaves. 

The Fayette County Sheriff's Office said a 20-year-old Jonesboro man turned himself in Monday, 10 days after police issued a warrant in connection to a water gun fight that turned deadly at Kenwood Park. Wilson said this only brought her a small kind of relief.

"I’m happy this person has been caught, but at the end of the day, my son will never be back with us."

Gillett's viewing will take place on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Dortch-Williamson Funeral & Cremation Services on  Highway 138 in Riverdale, GA. His Celebration of Life will be held on Thursday, May 20, 2021, at 12 p.m. at the same location.

RELATED: Suspect turns himself in, faces murder charge after shooting of soon-to-be graduate at park

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