DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of a 3-year-old shot and killed while he sat in the backseat of her car is begging for anyone with information to come forward.
RoShanda Craig was driving her normal route home down Eastland Road late Sunday night, Easter Sunday, when a stray bullet struck her son T'Rhigi. At first, Craig said she didn't realize what happened and she kept driving down Eastland Road, then turned on Bouldercrest Road. But at some point, she looked back and her world fell apart.
"When I turned around, my baby was bleeding," she said.
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On Wednesday, Craig showed 11Alive's Faith Abubey the bullet hole left in the side of her car. She said it entered above the wheel well, near the backseat of the driver's side, at an angle before traveling through the car and hitting T'Rhigi where he sat in the backseat on the passenger side.
Craig remembered how she tried to keep him calm, while he cried.
"My baby fought for his life," she recalled. "My baby was on the ground fighting for his life for almost 30 minute."
An ambulance came to take T'Rhigi to the hospital, but the 3-year-old was pronounced dead, leaving her to grieve her son, who she called a lovable boy with a big personality and an old soul.
"T’rhigi is very sweet," Craig remembered. "(He was) Always happy. Always smiling. Always dancing."
PHOTOS | Mother searching for suspects after 3-year-old son shot, killed
Police are still trying to figure out who fired the gun. Craig remembered seeing what she thought was a paintball gun inside a gray Dodge Charger that pulled up next to her, and she said that's what her focus was on. Investigators theorized it was a real gun that the passengers of that vehicle had, and that's where the fatal shot was fired. But now, they believe that is incorrect, and the bullets instead came from a Texico gas station at the corner of Bouldercrest and Eastland roads.
They still want to speak with the passengers of the passing car, but, they’re no longer considered suspects in the crime. It’s with this new information that police and Craig both hope to find more witnesses and bring the child’s killer to justice. Police also released video they believe shows other people, thought to be bystanders, inside the gas station near where the bullets were fired.
At least one of the potential witnesses may have even been outside when the shooting happened. Craig is asking for those witnesses to speak up.
"Please help me find who did this to my baby," Craig pleaded, asking for anything to help police find out who did it, even if it was an accident.
"Somebody at that store knows something, and I just need them to please come forward and help me find who did this to my baby," she said. "If they saw a paintball gun and... maybe they were trying to defend themselves. I don’t know. But either way, they killed my baby and they need to come forward."
Craig told 11Alive she will be burying her son during funeral services Saturday at Israel Baptist Church at noon.
