Kingston Frazier (Facebook)

On Wednesday, May 17, Kingston Frazier’s last full day on earth, he rode the bus home from North Jackson Elementary School in Mississippi. He was excited because he knew that he would be graduating from kindergarten to first grade the next day.


It was “the happiest day of his life,” Ebony Archie, the 6-year-old boy’s mother, said Friday at his funeral.

Hundreds of people attended Kingston’s funeral, including Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber; Jackson’s Democratic mayoral nominee, Chokwe Lumumba; Kingston’s basketball coach; community members; and dozens of Kingston’s family and friends.


Friends of Fallen Riders, a biker community, escorted Kingston’s family from their home to the church. They wore green, one of Kingston’s favorite colors, MSNewsNow.com reports. Police officers who helped search for Kingston were also in attendance.

“On this day we come to commemorate and to celebrate a baby’s life,” said Bishop Ronnie Crudup of Morning Star Baptist Church, who presided over Kingston’s homegoing.

Later, Crudup told the congregated mourners, “We gotta wake up and be more diligent, with our children especially. To make sure not only are our children not victimized but that our children are not the perpetrators.”

The Clarion-Ledger’s Bracey Harris painfully notes that Kingston may have been buried with a “blue Power Ranger, a Captain America action figure and a Ninja Turtle,” but on the day that this baby was so ruthlessly gunned down ... “there were no superheroes.”


As The Root previously reported, on May 18, three teenagers allegedly stole Archie’s Toyota Camry from a Kroger grocery store parking lot in Jackson; Kingston was in the back seat.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert, and a frantic statewide search—carried out by community members and multiple state agencies—ensued. After hours of searching, local news stations and some family members announced that Kingston had been found alive, but they were wrong.


That fleeting moment of immense relief turned to searing pain as news began to spread that Kingston had been discovered dead inside the stolen vehicle about 15 miles away from the Kroger parking lot where he had been abducted. He had been shot multiple times.


As The Root previously reported, Byron McBride, 19, was identified as the gunman in the case. Dwan Diondro Wakefield, 17; D’Allen Washington, 17; and McBride have all been charged with capital murder and are being held without bond. Only McBride faces the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in March 2005 that the death penalty for people under 18 years of age is “cruel and unusual punishment”; thus, it is banned by the Constitution.

While the details of Kingston’s death have left many around the country grief-stricken, Friday was a time to celebrate his young life.


Kingston’s homegoing service lasted over three hours and was filled with song and beautiful expressions of love and pride for Kingston.



Family members told WLBT’s David Kenney that the emotional service was the graduation from kindergarten to first grade that 6-year-old Kingston “never lived to see.”

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