TEMPLE HILLS, Md. — Rufus Hayes, 8, buried his mother, Pamela Thomas, Friday.
Police still don’t know who shot and killed Thomas on a busy street in Northeast D.C. on Feb. 9. The stray bullet flew through the back window of Thomas' car while she and Hayes were sitting in her sister’s car headed to a birthday party.
At the funeral, Hayes talked about how much he misses his mother.
He’s only in third grade, but he has already witnessed far too much tragedy.
In the last year, Hayes lost both his mother and father. He held tight to his little dog Sparky as his family reminisced about his 54-year-old mother. Thomas was a mom who was filled with life, who loved her children and loved to dance.
"I don’t know who taught her to play the tambourine. But she could play the tambourine like nobody’s business," said her sister, Marilyn Walker, laughing through the tears.
Police say Thomas was killed by a bullet meant for someone else. They’re still looking for the man who fired the round while running up Division Avenue Northeast. Rufus was sitting next to her when she was hit.
"I ducked right down. The bullet flew right past my head, through my hair. And it shot my mom. Once I seen that, I jumped out of the car," Hayes told WUSA9 the day after Thomas was murdered.
"[Hayes] got out of the backseat and said, 'They shot my mom, they shot my mom!'" Walker said. "And I ran around there and I looked at [Thomas]. And she was slumped over.... [so I called out,] 'We need help, we need help!'"
Walker wept describing her sister's death and Hayes comforted his aunt. It was something his mother always did for him.
"She was a good mom. She was always there for me when I was alone. When I was scared," Hayes said at the funeral.
He hasn’t been sleeping well since her murder. He speaks of her like she’s still with us. "She always tells me a story when I have nightmares, and I can go back to sleep."
The community has embraced Hayes, donating more than $30,000 to a GoFundMe to help him.
Thomas was so scared of the gun violence in the neighborhood where she was raising Hayes, she wrote out a eulogy in case she was killed.
"Keep something special so my kids will remember me," she wrote, signing it with a heart and the words, "Mother Pam, always."