An innocent bike race between two young boys turned into a tragedy when one was fatally shot after his friend lost.

The sudden killing of 10-year-old Keith “KJ” Frierson in Sacramento County, California, has left his family in shambles. The incident happened on Saturday, Dec. 30, around 4:30 p.m. on Greenholme Drive, local officials said. 

“My baby … asked me can he go outside to ride. Not even 15 minutes later, my baby was gone,” Brittani Frierson told KCRA. “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.”

When deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered a juvenile bleeding out from the head and neck, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. They attempted life-saving efforts until first responders got to the area. Frierson was sent to a local hospital, where he was said to have died.

Eyewitnesses told law enforcement that the suspects fled to a nearby apartment building and detained two juveniles, including a 10-year-old and his father, 53-year-old Arkete Davis.

During the probe, investigators found out that the child was sent to get cigarettes out of his father’s car. He allegedly also removed his father’s firearm from the vehicle and started boasting about it. 

“He then proceeded to shoot the victim once and ran into a nearby apartment. Detectives located a firearm in a nearby trash can, where Davis is believed to have tried to dispose of it,” the sheriff’s office said. “Detectives confirmed that Davis was legally prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm. The recovered firearm was also reported stolen in 2017.”

Officials said the 10-year-old was charged with murder and taken to a juvenile detention center. Davis was also taken into custody on $500,000 bail. He is facing firearm-related charges, child endangerment, and accessory after the fact. 

Fierson’s family is now trying to pick up the pieces and point the finger at Davis for how the incident played out. 

“It starts at home,” the child’s godmother, Nina Trepagnier, said to the news station. “This is the parents’ fault. They failed that child. And it took our baby, because they failed him, because they were poor examples.”