MIAMI – Two Miami-Dade County public high schools received a big donation Wednesday in memory of King Carter, 6, who was killed last year in a shooting.
"We will never forget that day, but we must always remember the memory of King Carter, and what better way than connecting King Carter's name to schools in our neighborhood," Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
The anonymous $1 million donation by a Miami woman is one of the largest donations in Miami-Dade County Public Schools history.
The generous gift was made in hopes of saving the lives of teenagers in memory of the young boy.
"She said, 'Alberto, I want to make what will probably be the single biggest investment into an educational program in the Liberty City area,'" Carvalho said. "It's great to give an opportunity to dozens and dozens of students, not two or three years down the line, but beginning in August of 2017."
The donation will fund the King Carter Academy of Trade and Logistics, which will open this fall at Miami Northwestern Senior High School.
It will also help develop the current program at Miami Central Senior High School.
The program gives hundreds of students the opportunity to get training and internships that could lead to jobs at the airport or the Port of Miami.
"I'm thankful and I'm very blessed that, you know, we can reach out to other kids and let them have an opportunity that my child didn't because his life was cut. He wasn't able to finish first grade," King's mother, Monica Smith, said.
"I know my son is smiling and praying and dancing and rejoicing and thanking ya'll, too," King's father, Santonio Carter said.
Police said King was fatally shot Feb. 20, 2016, in the parking lot of his Northwest Miami-Dade apartment building. They said he was the victim of an online feud between teenagers that ended in gunfire as King walked to buy candy.
Three teenagers, Leonard Adams, Irwen Presley and Tamar Teems, were charged in King's death.