RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Family, friends and loved ones gathered Friday at the Riviera Beach Municipal Beach Park to honor the life of Kelvi McCray.
"She's my baby, you know? She was everything to me," Kelvin McCray, Kelvi's father, said. "I know she's gone and I'm just trying to get through it one day at a time."
Hundreds were wearing pink and purple, Kelvi's favorite colors.
"This is her, her personality, and she was a person, everyone loved her," McCray said.
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The vigil started in the park as people gave speeches and prayers, and then lit candles and made their way down onto the beach.
"It's going to be tears of joy," Marla McKenny, Kelvi's mother, said. "We had a happy daughter."
Parents said Kelvi was 18 years old, the second youngest of five children.
"What did she want to do for a career?" WPTV reporter Joel Lopez asked.
"She was nursing, then she was looking into doing law. She perfected cosmetology. She just received her security license," McCray said. "She was the littlest person, but she was fearless. That was something she wanted to do, and I was just proud of her."
McKenny said the last conversation with her daughter was that she was hungry, so she bought her a cheeseburger.
"The victim was sitting, eating dinner and FaceTiming with three friends, when [Keisean] Shaw came in and shot her," West Palm Beach police spokesman Mike Jachles said.
McKenny said she was home when her daughter was killed.
"I hear the shots every day. I see her on the floor every day, (it's a) pain that will never go away, never," McKenny said.
When West Palm Beach police arrived at the home, they found Kelvi McCray, 18, with numerous gunshot wounds to her head, back and neck, the police report said.
Police found Shaw, 19, in the living room with a gunshot wound to his head. He later died in the hospital.
Family members said Shaw was on the police's radar before the shooting.
"They had him. They let a guy that choked my daughter, put a gun to her head, get away," McKenny said. "He came back the next day, and he killed her."
Police said before the shooting, officers were looking for Shaw.
"We knew what kind of car he was in," Jachles said. "We knew who we were looking for, but he just alluded us and tragically returned."
It's a situation that weighs heavily on Kelvi's parents.
"If they'd catch this guy the day before, none of this would have happened," McCray said.
The vigil on Singer Island made its way from the park to the water as loved ones said Kelvi loved the beach.
"What's been keeping you going this last week?" Lopez asked.
"The love of family, friends," McKenny said. "It means everything to me ... and I know it means everything to her too in spirit."
The funeral for Kelvi is planned for Friday, March 22 at Mt. Zion Primitive Baptist Church in West Palm Beach.
