(From WEEK News 25) - The Billups family says a range of emotions run deep, walking to the grave of Albert Billups-Wilson on his birthday.
The 8-year-old boy from Peoria's East Bluff was killed by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting on August 11th.
"They made sure he didn't get to make nine," says his grandmother, Alma Billups.
Little Albert is what the family called him.
Alma Billups says the senseless murder still doesn't seem real.
"There's some days I wake up out my bed, I'm hoping 'Little Albert' is standing over me sayin, 'Grandmama, here I am, right here.' That I'm somewhere, that I'm dreaming," says the child's greiving grandmother.
With the family's grief comes anger toward Peoria Police, they say, for not yet finding the boy's killers.
But the family has a message for those who took their loved one's life.
"Whatever problem you have, they didn't cause you this problem," says Alma Billups. "Don't take it to nobody else's house, don't put nobody else through this pain that you brought to this family here."
Little Albert's father says 'happy birthday' as he wipes tears from his eyes, tattooed with a memorial for his son.
"Ya'll see what I had to do?" the father asks, pointing to his eye. "Do you all see my tattoo? Y'all stop running and y'all stop hiding, y'all face it, come down here and play. Police ain't doing nothing about it, let's play. Grow up, ya'll. You call yourselves men? You call yourselves gangsters? Whatever it is, you ain't nothing."
But peace and serenity takes over at Little Albert's gravesite, where they presented a cake and released balloons with Little Albert's younger brother, who realized his grief almost immediately.
"And he looked up at me and he said, 'Grandma where is my brother?' And his eyes filled up with water, and before I got ready to answer he told me, 'My brother is in Heaven, Grandma.' And I told him yes."
Moving forward from the family's unexplainable loss, Alma says she suppresses her pain and anger with faith.
Although Little Albert is not with them for his 9th birthday, she says he his celebrating in a happier place.
