Grief counselors will be on hand Monday at a local elementary school as students return to class without one of their classmates - a first grader who was shot and killed while playing outside an apartment complex in northeast Miami-Dade over the weekend.
King Carter, just 6-years-old, was playing outside with friends in the parking lot of The Colors apartments, located in the 1200 block of Northeast 103 Lane Saturday afternoon around 2:35 p.m. when police say two men got out of a dark, four-door sedan and opened fire.
Police say that immediatly after the shooting, the two shooters got back into the car, while witnesses say a third person behind the wheel sped off.
Carter was transported to the hospital but later died.
It is not known who the intended target may have been.
Carter was a first grader at Van E. Blanton Elementary School in northwest Miami-Dade. Counselors will be available to assist teachers and students alike in coping with the difficult news of Carter's murder.
Meanwhile, hundreds came out for a vigil and march Sunday afternoon at the complex where Carter was killed. Residents, relatives and community leaders delivered impassioned statements calling for an end to senseless gun violence.
“I ran everywhere around asking where is King? And me, I had to find my son with his eyes open. Me! I found my son, man,” said Santonio Carter, the young boy's father, through tears.
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho urged anyone with information to come forward immediately.
"Do not wait another second, another minute, another hour," he said. "For there will be another mother and father who shall grieve."
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"Please tell us that you saw something," said an emotional Miami Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime. "Our children must be able to play in the parking lot, in the backyard. This has got to stop, for God's sake."
The rally was followed by a march along the route that Carter took daily to school.
Rapper and community activist Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell joined the rally and the march. Campbell was familiar with the victim and his family, and called in particular on the men of the community to speak up and take responsibility.
"If these black men don't take responsibility of their community, nobody is going to help us but us," Campbell explained.
At the end of the march, Carter's father explained that the only thing keeping him going is his faith.
"I know the Lord's word, I know the Lord's will. The Lord don't make mistakes. I know my son is absent from the body. That means he is present with the Lord," he said.
Miami-Dade Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to information and arrests in the shooting.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.
