There were games, free children’s books, markers and hotdogs, but the neighborhood event didn’t feel like a celebration.

Less than a week ago, 11-year-old Davon McNeal was caught in crossfire and shot to death in Anacostia in southeast DC. Residents of Cedar Gardens, where Davon had lived until recently, wanted to create a space to help children living in the neighborhood feel safe and supported.

On Wednesday evening, surrounded by signs that read, “Kids Lives Matter,” 11-year-old Amaya Ellis decorated a poster she made for him with glitter. She read aloud what she had written.

“Why did you have to die. You were only 11 years old. This stuff hurts.”

She had been Davon’s classmate since the second grade. “He was nice, he was funny. We was always playing in class.”

Her little sister Dakota colored a sign that read “RIP Davon. I LOVE you.”

Local parents like Jasmine Acker helped organize the event, as well as nightly community walks. Acker said members of the McNeal family were longtime friends and their children went on trips together. In fact, they were playing together with fireworks just before the shooting happened.

“It’s affected them a lot,” she said.

Acker has five children. She said she wants to help them process what happened, and also explain the risks they face from gun violence. She’s especially worried about her 12- and 13-year-old sons who are tall for their age: 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 8 inches. She’s worried gangs may mistake her sons for adults and shoot them.

“They’re man size. [Gangs] may think they’re aiming at a man but they’re not. They’re children.”

Fanta Kante, who was carrying around her 11-month-old daughter Harlem at the event, said she’s in shock. “That could have been my baby. Can you imagine your child, only 11, dying? Burying your child? I couldn’t imagine it.”

She is concerned about the long term effects of the shooting on children. “It’s crazy. Your friend was here yesterday and today he’s just gone?”

Eight-year-old Miloh Weaver was busy at work breading fish fillets and then dropping them in bubbling oil to fry. “I’m cooking fish for Davon,” he said.

His father, William Weaver, donated free hotdogs, hamburgers and fish for the neighborhood event through his food business, Marty’s Food and Catering. “I looked at my son and just imagining him being shot like Davon, put me in a different mindset.”

12-year-old Terron Acker wore a t-shirt he made with the words “Long Live Day-Day,” Davon’s nickname, on it. They played football in the neighborhood together and were watching the fireworks together the day Davon died. “I really loved him.”

Terron says when he heard the news, “I ran in the house and started crying.”

Many of the children are too young to fully realize what happened. Others, like Terron, don’t know how to process it. “I don’t believe it. I think it’s a dream,” he says.

When he’s asked if there’s anything else he’d like to say about Davon, Terron considers the question and says softly, “Life is short.”