DOUGLAS, Ga. — The search is on for the person responsible for the shooting deaths of two teens at a Douglasville Sweet 16 house party.
On Saturday night, 15-year-old Samuel Moon and 14-year-old Ajanaye Hill were gunned down at the party that had more than 100 teenagers in attendance. On Wednesday, officials upped the reward for finding any suspects involved to $40,000.
In an exclusive interview with 11Alive, Samuel's entire family opened up about the tragedy.
“It feels like someone just took my heart and ripped it out,” Samuel's mother Beverly LaFleur said.
LaFleur was overcome with emotion as she spoke about her son.
“The lights, the police were so far away, so I couldn’t get through so I opened the door and said 'let’s go', and I took off running and I ran the whole way down because I just had to get to my baby,” LaFleur said as she described arriving at the shooting scene.
According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. about 100 teens flooded Talkeetna Road when the house party was shutdown. Shortly after, someone open-fired into the crowd. In total, six teens were struck by gunfire.
“He was running for his life and yes, he was hit by a stray bullet, but the fact that this powerful weapon was in the hands of a child -- it makes it where we have no safe spaces anymore," Samuel's uncle Dr. Richard LaFleur said. "There’s no more safe place for our kids for them to gather."
Maryse Moon, Samuel's oldest sister, simply described her emotions as "shock."
Samuel’s other sister, Catherine, and his brother, Samaun, echoed similar sentiments.
“I would say that it’s a lot of emotions going on at one time, so you can’t really feel one thing, so you’re feeling everything or nothing," she said.
“That’s my little brother," Samaun said. "We played games together all the time, we pretty much did everything together."
The LaFleur family said Samuel was the life of their home, always smiling and laughing and his infectious personality extended beyond their house.
“I met with his bus driver today. She came over and said he would dap everybody from the back of the bus to the front of the bus, he would have to make sure everyone in there is smiling, so he was just a fun-loving kid," his mom said. "And this bow tie is his signature mark, whenever we had to dress up to go anywhere he got this bow tie out and I’m representing him right now with this bow tie."
There will be a community prayer walk in honor of both Samuel and Ajanaye on Thursday at 6 p.m. The group will walk from Plume Way to Tackett Road.
LaFleur has also set up an online fundraiser to help with funeral expenses. Anyone interested in donating can visit the link here.