Family, friends mourn 13-month-old Bill Thao, police make "arrests for unrelated charges"
Family, friends mourn 13-month-old Bill Thao, police make “arrests for unrelated charges”
Family, friends mourn 13-month-old Bill Thao, police make "arrests for unrelated charges"
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee police say "arrests for unrelated charges have been made as part of the investigation" into the shooting death of 13-month-old Bill Thao. The news of those "arrests" comes on the same day the Thao family buries the 13-month-old child.
Thao died after shots were fired into a home near 73rd and Mill last Saturday night, December 27th.
On the same day Milwaukee police announce the arrest, a grieving family is saying goodbye. It's a very difficult day for Bill Thao's family as they held his funeral Friday afternoon and they prepare to bury him on Saturday.
Sounds of sorrow fill the funeral home as a community sends off one of it's littlest members.
"My wife's still crying, my son, my older son's still looking for his little brother all the time," said Somboon Thao, Bill Thao's father.
The Thao family now has only memories left of their 13-month-old son. Two days after Christmas, Bill was visiting a relative's home with his mother when shots were fired into the house. A bullet hit Bill, who later died at the hospital.
"I had like a very very hard week. And finally the new year's turned to but this year is making me like really sad that, like everyone enjoy the new year but not my family because my son's not here," said Somboon.
Bill is the third child under the age of 10 to be shot and killed since May. That statistic didn't escape Pastor Greg Young, who came to speak with the family on Friday.
"2014's a tough year, you all know that. A tough year in that a lot of kids, a lot of tragedy. The senselessness has got to stop," said Pastor Young.
It's the senselessness of his son's death that Somboon Thao struggles with now. If he could speak with the person or persons who shot Bill, he says:
"Does he really care about others or not? That's the question I would ask. I don't think that God created him to be shooting other or killing people. I think he created him, God created him to do something special," said Somboon.
Right now, he says the family focused on how to live with their pain.
"I feel very sad that, my son, and now he's not my son," said Somboon.
A visitation began at 8:00 a.m. at Lakeview Funeral Home near 76th and Brown Deer Road on Friday, January 2nd. A service followed.
Pinelawn Memorial Park on West Capitol Drive in Milwaukee has offered to cover the cost of Bill Thao’s plot and burial services. The family has chosen a space that is large enough for other family members to be laid to rest around the baby later on. Bill Thao will be buried in the center of the plot.
Somboon Thao says police told him they have caught one person involved with Bill's death, but are still looking for others.
Police say arrests for unrelated charges have been made as part of this investigation. They also say there have not been any referrals to the District Attorney's Office and they are continuing to investigate.
Police are asking for the public’s assistance in finding the person or persons responsible for the shooting that killed Bill Thao. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 414-935-7360.
CLICK HERE to access a Go Fund Me page established by Bill Thao’s family.