SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — It’s been a difficult few days for the family of 11-month-old Dior Harris, whose life was cut short after a shooting Sunday night.
The family is now trying to navigate the tragic loss of their baby. Many of them inside of the Onondaga County Justice Center courtroom Tuesday for the suspect, Chavez Ocasio’s, hearing.
Loved ones showed up wearing t-shirts with baby Dior’s face on them. Emotions were raw as the family had to relive Sunday night’s tragedy as they listened to Ocasio’s slew of charges.
The mother of the two other children who were shot and sent to the hospital spoke to NewsChannel 9’s Adrienne Smith on Monday afternoon. Shakema Buckmon was the driver behind the wheel at the time of the incident.
For Buckmon and the family, it was like any other Sunday, spending quality time together, but it was just before 7 p.m. when their lives were changed forever.
“They rolled down their window just enough to have their hand out the window and just started shooting, pow pow pow and just started shooting,” Shakema Buckmon explained.
It was reckless shooting that took the life of her 11-month-old baby cousin, Dior Harris.
At the time of the shooting, her initial reaction was to speed off and get help.
“I floored it. I floored it all the way here cause this is the safest place I knew and that we knew to come to,” Buckmon explained.
The five of them ended up back at the 100 block of Lincoln avenue in Syracuse near Tallman Street.
As the person behind the wheel, Buckmon isn’t only dealing with the loss of her baby cousin, but the guilt of not being able to save her.
I feel like it’s my fault, but I know it’s not my fault. I am just so worried about everyone else and how they’re doing, and I just want my cousin to know that I love her and this wasn’t my fault.
Shakema Buckmon, mother of two children injured and driver of vehicle
However, like so many of us, Buckmon is wondering why this had to happen to her baby cousin and family.
“My cousins didn’t deserve this. We didn’t deserve anything. We’re just regular people. We didn’t deserve this, like why? What is this for? Buckmon asked. “I just want justice for my cousin baby Dior.”
‘That’s all I want. I want justice for her, my cousin, me, my kids…I want justice for baby Dior,’— Shakema Buckmon
The family, ready for closure as they try to move forward but knowing life without Baby Dior will never be the same.
Desiree Seymore, the mother of baby Dior, has started a GoFundMe.
On the website, she writes that she is a single mother raising two other children and is pregnant and expecting another child.
Click here for the GoFundMe.
