SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brittani Frierson thought nothing of it Saturday when she allowed her 10-year-old son to go outside and ride the new bicycle he got for Christmas.
Minutes later, Keith “KJ” Frierson was dead, and another 10-year-old’s life was irreversibly changed. According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the second boy fatally shot KJ with an illegal handgun he retrieved from his father’s vehicle.
Brittani Frierson said that the boys and some other children had been racing on their bikes, KCRA in Sacramento reported. The alleged shooter grew upset when he lost the race, she said.
“My baby … asked me can he go outside to ride. Not even 15 minutes later, my baby was gone,” Frierson said at a vigil for her son. “All because he was enjoying a race with some other kids he considered his friends on his new bike.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s not OK.”
The alleged shooter and his father were both arrested. The boy, whose name has not been released, is charged with murder.
Jail records indicate the boy’s father, Arkete Turan Davis, 53, is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a stolen firearm in a vehicle and criminal storage of a firearm. He is also charged with endangering the life or health of a child and being an accessory after the fact, records show.
Davis is accused of trying to cover up the crime by getting rid of the alleged murder weapon.
“Instead of aiding my baby, he tried to hide it. He tried to cover it up. He left my baby there,” Frierson said, according to KCRA. “He will pay for this. He will. We’ll get justice for my son. I will get justice for my son.”
Investigators allege that sheriff’s deputies responded just after 4:30 p.m. Saturday to an apartment complex in the 4700 block of Greenholme Drive, where they found KJ lying in the parking lot. The boy was bleeding from gunshot wounds to his head and neck.
Paramedics worked to save the child, but he was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital.
Witnesses to the shooting told deputies the boy responsible had run into a nearby apartment. Deputies went to the apartment, where they found Davis and two boys.
“Based on their investigation, (detectives) learned one of the juveniles detained, also a 10-year-old male, went to his father’s vehicle to get him cigarettes,” Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office officials said in a statement. “He then took a gun from inside the vehicle and bragged that his father had a gun. He then proceeded to shoot the victim once and ran into a nearby apartment.”
Davis is accused of trying to conceal the crime by tossing the gun into a nearby trashcan, from which authorities later pulled the weapon.
“Detectives confirmed that Davis was legally prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm,” the statement reads. “The recovered firearm was also reported stolen in 2017.”
Davis is being held in the Sacramento County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond, records show. His son is in the county’s youth detention facility.
Family and friends described KJ as a “great kid” who loves sports and played youth football. His godmother, Nina Trepagnier, said he was always laughing and joking, but that he was also dependable and respectful.
“We’re going to miss him,” Trepagnier said, according to KCRA. “We’re going to miss him a lot.”
She said the shooting should never have happened and blamed Davis for his son’s actions.
“It starts at home,” Trepagnier said. “This is the parents’ fault. They failed that child. And it took our baby, because they failed him, because they were poor examples.”