Family stays strong after shooting leaves 12-year-old dead

LATEST: Family members say Day’shawn Bills died about 5 p.m. Friday after being on life support since he was shot early Thursday morning.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The family of a 12-year-old boy on life support after being shot early Thursday morning said Friday they were still “hanging in there.”

Day’shawn Bills was inside his grandmother’s house, around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, playing a video game when police say a bullet from an outside shooting went into the house and struck the child. He was rushed to the hospital.

“Just being a kid. That’s all he was doing. Just being a kid,” the boy’s grandmother, Ida Davis, said. “I mean we have no problem with him staying up that time of night. We know he was in the house. We thought he was going to be safe, but it didn’t happen like that. But we’re going to be ok.”

The family said they will stay strong for each other and will support each other.

“He was only 12 years old. His uncle took him every day to work. That’s all he wanted to do, was go be with his uncle. His uncle owns a mobile wash and they cut grass and do all that. He was with them every day,” the boy’s uncle, Ricky Williams, said.

One of his uncles told News 8 Friday, that he’s just “holding up.”

An Indianapolis Public Schools spokesperson told News 8 on Friday that grief counselors are available at Arlington Middle School and will be on standby for students and staff over the next several days.

One of the boy’s cousins told News 8 that donations are being accepted via CashApp under the account $daphnequin or the name Daphne Dennis.

That cousin told News 8 that people can donate at Chase bank locations and First Merchant Bank locations under the name Glass House starting Monday.