In a childhood photo, he wears a pair of yellow and blue SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas and flashes a big smile.

He was home-schooled and had two adult sisters. One of his sisters lived with him, but she wasn’t home at the time. To show support for his family, members of his community came together for a candlelight vigil.

Sheriff's deputies found Ramand Kassadine Davis, 12, in the bedroom of his home in Hurt, Virginia, on Jan. 4, 2019. He had been shot and killed; his parents also lay dead from gunshot wounds in the kitchen. Authorities believe a domestic dispute was the reason Davis's father shot his wife, Ramand, and himself.

“Leah” loved to dance, as her YouTube playlists and videos posted on social media show. And she loved her brothers and sisters. 

Her sister Minah looked up to her and their eldest sister, Tiyaniah: “(T)hey showed me things my mom couldn’t,” she said. “They been there since day one.”

On Nov. 19, 2018, Yaleah Hall, 17, was shot and killed alongside Tiyaniah Rakele Hopkins, 20, in a basement on Malcolm Street in southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Police suspected a drug deal, but Captain John Ryan said that the sisters weren’t involved: “They were innocent bystanders of something that went very awry.”

At 17, he was living his best life. He enjoyed football, basketball, track and dirt biking. He excelled academically and had a loving family with eight siblings and his beloved dog, Bella.   

He was dreaming big, working on his senior portfolio and considering careers in cybersecurity or the military. He hoped to marry his high school sweetheart, Maddy.

At 8 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2018, Elisha Amon Cole was shot and killed in the crossfire between two gangs in Waldorf, Maryland. A fellow student called him “a good dude (in) the wrong place at the wrong time.”

She was an artist who loved to bake, craft, sew. A generous, selfless girl who cared for others and enjoyed giving gifts. She was one of four adopted children in the family and was homeschooled with three of her six siblings.

She “was unrelenting joy and exuberance,” reads an online testimonial by her family. “A loving and tender young woman who was always concerned about others’ well-being. A sweet hearted social butterfly who enjoyed good jokes and teasing.”

Lia Lin Collier, 15, and her three siblings were fatally shot by their mother in a murder-suicide on Oct. 15, 2018, at their home in Columbia, Tennessee.

She spent her days painting watercolors. She would often sing – in the shower, in the car, for her family. She loved her siblings, her nephews, the people that surrounded her. She was always there for them:  She hugged when they cried, she talked when they couldn’t, she smiled when until they would laugh. She loved helping others.

Peyton Nicole Hurt, 15, was shot at a house party by her ex-boyfriend in Ledbetter, Kentucky on June 9, 2018. She was kept on life support long enough to donate her organs.

He wanted to join the U.S. Armed Forces, so his father would rouse him every morning for school with their little inside joke: “Hey Marine, wake up!”

Friends described him as a dreamer — his family moved to America from the Philippines to give their children a better life. He dreamed of serving his country, succeeding in school and making his family proud. He excelled at math. In his downtime, he loved playing video games.

Ryan Amadeo Dela Cruz, 17, was a senior at Franklin High School in Seattle. He was fatally shot on June 2, 2018, two weeks shy of his high school graduation.

He was known affectionately as “Pop-Pop.” He was respectful, obedient and kept to himself. But refusing to participate in gang activity could not protect him from the violence in his community.

Death was no stranger to him growing up: Three cousins were killed over things as simple as teasing over a bicycle. His beloved half-brother had died less than two months ago.

Rashaad Izil Wisher, 18, was shot the evening of July 8, 2018, in Wilmington, Delaware, a city that has had the highest rate of teen gun violence in the nation. Rashaad died from his wounds later that night at Christiana Hospital.

Her mother had been a police officer who probably did not want the horrors of the job to follow her home. 

She and her brother could often be seen playing in the yard of their grandparents’ home. “Izzy was full of energy, you could not be in a bad mood around her,” her mother said.

Four-year-old Izabella Marie Helem was accidentally shot by her 3-year-old brother as he played with a gun in their grandparents’ home in Lebanon, Indiana, on Nov. 29, 2018. The child found the gun, which belonged to a family friend who staying at house, underneath the couch. Izabella died on Dec. 1, 2018.

Deep, steady beats pulse in the background as he enthusiastically raps and dances to his latest hit, “Heavy Night,” which has more than 21,000 views on YouTube.

His 4,235 followers on Instagram knew him as “Fat Daddy” and “Heavy Baby.” He spent a lot of time creating music videos with his friends. Outside the music realm, he was a brother and a father of three children.

Raydale Hill, 17, was shot outside a convenience store on West Grand Avenue in Oakland, California, on Sept. 13, 2018, at 12:17 a.m. He died at a hospital the same day.

After his stepfather died last year in their apartment complex’s parking lot, the young man was determined to protect his little brother and help his girlfriend raise her young daughter, even though he wasn’t the biological dad.

With the little girl about to turn 3, he spent a week looking for money to buy a scooter, her birthday wish, while struggling to find a job. He managed to raise the money for it. But he never got the chance to purchase it.

Jaquincy Jawan Ross, 18, was shot on September 23, 2018, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, just yards away from where his stepfather was shot.