CLEVELAND — More than a hundred mourners gathered Thursday to honor the one year anniversary of Saniyah Nicholson's death.
"Ya'll see us now, but ya'll don't see us at midnight," said Saniyah's mother, Marshawnette Daniels. "Ya'll don't see when my son wakes me up and just lay on me and he's crying, he's breaking."
Both Saniyah's parents addressed the crowd at the DNA Level C Boxing Club while holding back tears. This was the very place their little girl was killed exactly a year ago.
"I don't have no words," said Saniyah's dad, Robert Nicholson. "All I know is they took my baby, and she was all I had. I've been in a dream for the last year."
Saniyah was shot and killed at the intersection of Lee Road and Harvard Avenue in Cleveland. The 9-year-old and her sister were waiting in the car while their mom picked up their brother from boxing practice. She was caught in the crossfire of a brigade of bullets. Several juveniles, who are being charged as adults, have been arrested in connection with her death.
"It's hard to be in here, because this was our second home and now this isn't my second home anymore, because this second home holds a nightmare," said Daniels.
Not only did people at the gym paint a mural for the girl, the police officer who tried desperately to save Saniyah's life that night came to honor her too.
"He helped me that day and for him I am so grateful," said Daniels.
Saniyah's memory will not only live on with her family, but in the hearts of so many in Northeast Ohio and across the country.
RELATED: His sister, Saniyah Nicholson, was gunned down last year; now he's using his love for boxing to cop
