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‘He was just a child’: Family heartbroken after boy killed in Christmas Eve shooting

By Mike Suriani Dec 27, 2023 | 8:31 AM

COAHOMA COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A family is heartbroken and searching for answers after a 10-year-old boy was shot and killed in Mississippi on Christmas Eve.

The Coahoma County Sheriff’s Office told us Tuesday that they still have no suspects in the deadly shooting that claimed the life of 10-year-old Al’Darius Nesbitt.

His mother, Marquisha Nesbitt, is in great pain as she deals with the incomprehensible death of her son.

“He was ten. What enemies did he have? He was ten,” Nesbitt said. “That was my spoiled son. He was my only son. That was my baby. He was my baby. He couldn’t do no wrong.”

It happened in the small town of Friars Point, where, according to the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Office, the 10-year-old along with a 14-year-old were passengers in a vehicle when someone fired shots.

“I just want justice served. I’m gonna find out who did this to my baby. He was just a child. He was just a child,” Nesbitt said.

Nesbitt says her son, who is from Lambert, Mississippi, was visiting his dad in Friars Point, and she recalls the last time she spoke with Al’Darius.

“He told me he would come home to me on Christmas Day when I saw him. Last time I saw my baby was Monday,” she said.

After the youngster was shot, investigators say he was driven to the hospital in Clarksdale. By the time family members arrived, it was too late.

“We all were at the hospital, and to see him laying there on that table like he was just asleep,” said his grandfather, Marvin Thigpen.

Thigpen says Christmas will never be same again for this family and prays society will change its ways.

“We need to just stop the gun violence. If we can stop that, we’ll have a better world,” he said.

If you know anything that could help investigators solve this case, you are urged to call the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Office at 662-592-1395.