North Preston celebrates life of young boy killed in December

There was a special celebration Thursday in a community outside Halifax to honour the life of a young boy who was killed in a shooting in December.

Thursday would have been Lee'Marion Cain's ninth birthday.

Cain was shot while sitting in a vehicle in Dartmouth, N.S. Police say the boy was transported to hospital, where he died as a result of his injuries.

Family and friends gathered at the North Preston Community Centre Thursday night, wearing shirts in his honour, playing basketball, and remembering the boy lovingly known as “Mar-Mar.”

“I’m so sad,” said Mazie Simmonds, Cain’s grandmother. “But I’m happy to see everybody because it’s really nice to see everyone. But I’m very, very, very, I’m very sad.”

His other grandmother, Tina Rose, says she prays every day the perpetrators of the killing are caught.

“It is like everything else, everybody knows, but nobody wants to say anything,” said Rose, who Cain called “Nanny.”

In December, Halifax police said they were looking for suspects in the shooting -- two Black men who were in a burgundy SUV, possibly a Chevrolet, with tinted windows.

Police said they do not believe the shooting was random.

No arrests have been made in connection with Cain's death.