Vigil held for 8-yr-old boy killed a year ago

3 years ago 288

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A vigil was held Saturday successful grant of 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, the small lad whose assemblage was recovered Sunday, a twelvemonth aft helium was beaten to decease wrong a westbound Harris County flat analyzable on with his abandoned brothers.

Alief assemblage activistic Joseph Dinnon, besides known arsenic Capo Joe, was 1 of the speakers astatine the play event. He said it was important for the assemblage to travel unneurotic to grieve and grant the child's representation portion lasting unneurotic to telephone for justness and change.

"We got to travel unneurotic and we person to talk up," Dinnon said. "There were radical successful these apartments that did talk up, you cognize what I'm saying, but similar I was telling them, sometimes you person to spell supra and beyond."

According to Harris County Sheriff's Office, Lee was beaten to decease soon earlier Thanksgiving past year. His assemblage was near successful an flat on with his 3 brothers, who investigators said were abandoned and forced to fend for themselves for astir a year.

Hedy Carter said she has known the household for much than 40 years and adjacent watched the boys' mother, Gloria Williams, turn up.

Carter said she made aggregate attempts to interaction Williams implicit the past year, and astatine 1 point, her calls were blocked.

"This week has conscionable been horrific," Carter said. "It's heart-wrenching, devastating and we're trying to conscionable day-by-day marque it done this ordeal. Every clip we'd get adjacent to her (Williams), she'd go. Get close, she'd go. We didn't recognize wherefore astatine the time, but arsenic you spot this full twelvemonth of events, we cognize wherefore now. She didn't privation anybody to cognize what had happened, however it happened, erstwhile it happened, truthful we were similar 'What's going on?'"

Carter described Lee arsenic an obedient, saccharine and loving small boy.

Among the assemblage astatine the vigil, was 10-year-old Josh Todd. Todd utilized to play with the young boys erstwhile his grandma lived astatine the flat complex. His mother, Shadarra Todd, said they wanted to be Saturday's lawsuit to wage their respects.

"It's tough," Todd said. "Those children are going to person it hard, astir likely, the remainder of their lives, truthful it's decidedly heartbreaking."

Todd said she's had to person pugnacious conversations with her lad astir what to bash and however to talk up erstwhile thing is going on.

"Bringing my kid retired present to fto him know, each of these kids, that they are loved," Todd said. "That they person idiosyncratic to spell to. The assemblage came retired today. Even if you consciousness similar you can't spell to your parents, you know, possibly speech to a friend, speech to a neighbor. If thing is ever going on, speech to a teacher. You person to fto idiosyncratic know."

Matthew Mouton created a customized tribute for Kendrick Lee that read, 'Protect Our Children' on with pictures of the 8-year-old, surrounded by candles and mementoes.

"I don't privation these children's names oregon faces to beryllium forgotten," Mouton said. "Just halt the violence. Every time erstwhile I make 1 of these, and I deliberation it's going to beryllium the past one, and it's ever two, three, four, five, and it's getting retired of control, and we request to travel unneurotic arsenic a assemblage and halt it."

Resources to study kid maltreatment oregon neglect:

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)

24-hour, toll-free maltreatment hotline, 1-800-252-5400.

The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline

24-hour, 7-days a week nationalist hotline 1-800-4-A-CHILD oregon 1-800-422-4453.