Nathan Isaiah Hurtado

The backyard of his new home had room for a swings and a slide. This excited him — more room to play with his siblings after school.

A broad, toothy grin seemed permanently plastered to his face. He was a ball of energy and the youngest, but certainly not the quietest, of his siblings. He was just “a happy kid,” his father would later say, who would have loved the teddy bears and flowers that later sat outside their stoop.

Nathan Isaiah Hurtado, 4, died on April 22, 2018, in Modesto, California, after his mother shot both his brother and him before taking her own life.