Family and friends gathered Saturday for Mario Bailey’s funeral.
ATLANTA — As a family continues to mourn the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy, his grandmother smiled through her pain Saturday as she reminisced about the special moments she shared with him.
“I am grateful that my grandson is now in Heaven,” Mario Bailey’s grandmother said.
People gathered Saturday for his funeral at Springfield Missionary Baptist Church. The congregation was filled with family, people who went to school with him, and others who grew up with him, his grandmother said.
She called his loss a “senseless” act that she doesn’t understand. The Tri-Cities High School student was killed following a basketball game on Feb. 9, according to East Point Police.
Bailey, a 10th-grader, was shot multiple times outside the school as people were leaving the game, police said. In a letter from law enforcement sent home to parents, school officials revealed one person was shot and another was stabbed that Friday night after the game. Both students were critically injured during the incidents, and Bailey later died. An arrest has been made in Bailey’s shooting death.
This grandmother said the teen was someone with a positive attitude who was a joy to be around.
“He was always charming, he was always loving, he was always smiling. He was very playful,” she said with a smile. “He was kid, 15 years old. He was living a kid’s life. He had no worries, he had no troubles. He had nothing to worry about but being a child. And that’s what he was.”
She said parents shouldn’t have to lay their babies to rest. She pleaded for young people to come forward when they hear or see things happening in the community.
“Our children are being killed,” she said. “They’re not dying from natural causes, they are dying from violence.”
At the funeral service, Bailey’s Junior ROTC uniform was on display to honor him.
“Long live Mario, and we love him dearly and greatly, and he will never be forgotten,” she said.
