Photo Courtesy of WLBX
Shaquille O’Neal is helping the family of Devin Page, Jr. by covering funeral expenses for the three-year-old boy killed Tuesday night after a stray bullet struck him while he was asleep in his Baton Rouge home.
Before O’Neal reached out to the family, they set up a GoFundMe page seeking $15,000. Local activists then helped the ex-athlete get in contact with Page’s family members on Friday, according to WBRZ. O’Neal partnered with Greater Beulah Baptist Church to hold the service.
Police officers believe that the bullet that killed Page was from a gunfight that broke out in front of the sleeping boy’s house. The bullet entered the child’s bedroom window and struck him while in bed.
“Until it happens to you until the gun is shot at your house, you know, until the bullets come through your window, you don’t get involved. You have nothing to say,” Cathy Toliver, Page’s grandmother, told KSLA News 12. “But you don’t want this feeling that we have right now. You don’t want the feeling of knowing that you’ll never see your grandbaby or your son again. You don’t want that feeling.”
Tye Toliver, the three-year-old’s mother, said that her family tried moving because of the continuous gunfire heard at night in recent weeks, but it was too expensive — the family would have to pay thousands of dollars to move. The mother said she tried to “stick it out.”
“Now that I stick it out, this is the outcome of what happened,” Toliver said. “My son got killed.”
Two days before Page’s death, another child was injured by gun violence on the same street. These incidents caused Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome to go to Twitter to address the violence.
“Baton Rouge, we must stand up for Peace,” the tweet said. “Today, we are asking everyone to collectively call for a week of peace. TODAY, we want to implore individuals to settle their disputes with words rather than violence. Choose hope and choose peace!”
Page’s funeral isn’t O’Neal’s first time offering to cover funeral expenses. He offered to cover the funeral expenses for Malachi Hemphill, who accidentally killed himself with a gun during a live stream on Instagram in 2017. He also covered the tab for Shaniya Davis, who was kidnapped and killed in 2009.