MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot at his own birthday party was laid to rest on Thursday.
Local 10 News was there as the hearse carrying Elijah LaFrance arrived at the funeral home in Miami Gardens.
Elijah was celebrating his upcoming fourth birthday with family and friends in northeast Miami-Dade last month when he was shot.
“This was not just a drive-by,” said Maj. Jorge Aguiar, of the Miami-Dade Police Department. “It was an intended attack on people or someone that was at this residence.”
According to Detective Kevin Thelwell, Elijah was standing in the doorway of the home while his parents and other family members were cleaning the front yard.
“Unknown subjects armed with various semi-automatic weapons, two included rifles, arrived on the scene and began discharging the firearms,” Thelwell said in a video that the Miami-Dade Police Department tweeted.
Police officers who responded to a ShotSpotter alert took Elijah and his parents to a nearby hospital where a doctor pronounced him dead. Thelwell said there were more than 60 shell casings at the crime scene.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.