DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Family, friend and teachers who loved Malik Tyler, the 13-year-old shot and killed in crossfire in Pleasant Grove on Tuesday, June 4, gathered for a celebration of his life Thursday evening.
“I’m at a loss for words,” said Derrion Cornelius, one of Tyler’s friends. “I just want most people to stop the violence.”
“What’s wrong with the world now? It’s crazy. It’s crazy,” said another friend, King Morgan, who was walking with Tyler the evening of the deadly shooting.
They were walking to the corner store for snacks, when someone driving by started shooting.
Dallas Police arrested Datrail Clayton for Tyler’s murder.
“What’s the point of having a store if you can’t even walk up there,” wondered Morgan.
Another friend who witnessed the shooting, told his mother, Tyler said he felt something burning before falling to the ground. All his friend could do, he said, was hold Tyler’s hand.
“It hurts,” said Malik Tyler’s sister Keonna Smith. “I have to sit here and watch my momma cry. And it hurts. Cause someone took her child from her.”
Malik Tyler
Family members spoke Thursday about Tyler’s smile and urged his friends to be happy, too.
“I know we’re supposed to be happy ‘cause Malik would want us happy,” said Cornelius. “I just want everyone to know that I love Malik very much with all my heart. And there’s nothing no one can do to take that away from me.”
The family is headed to Arkansas for Tyler’s funeral and burial. That’s where they lived before moving to Dallas two years ago.
Dallas Police are still searching for a second suspect in Tyler’s murder.
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