As the sunlight faded Saturday on West 16th Street, Christal Basey walked up the steps of the home where her daughter and granddaughter were killed two days earlier.
A woman in the crowd of family and friends shook her head, gesturing for Basey to step back into the tall grass in front of 4601 W. 16th St. and to step away from the pool of blood that had dried under the home's front door.
"No. I'm not afraid of my daughter's blood," Basey said, her voice rising. "I've been in there. I know what it looks like."
The crowd quieted, a balloon clutched in the hand of each of the 50 or so people gathered to remember the three people shot and killed Thursday afternoon.
At 2:04 p.m. Thursday, Little Rock police officers responded to a welfare call, where they found the bodies of three women who had been shot in the home. Several children were also inside the home at the time, at least two of whom watched their mother die.
Officers arrested Torrence Deshawn Price, 42, on three charges of first-degree murder after finding him with a .40-caliber gun covered in blood in the house.
The Little Rock Police Department has not yet released the names of the three victims. For this article, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is naming those victims whose identities have been confirmed by family members.
[INTERACTIVE MAP: Search all killings in Little Rock, North Little Rock this year]
Basey gathered her friends and family on Saturday not to dwell on what happened to her daughter, Dontriece Hughes, and her granddaughter, Sydne Bolden, but to remember them.
"I'm running late because I had to take care of some business at the funeral home," Basey said. "This is not easy for me."
Basey's son draped one arm across her shoulders as she continued.
"Everybody that knew Dontriece knows she was a good-hearted person," Basey said. "A whole bunch of people stayed in this house when they needed. At the end of the day, my baby would take you in if you didn't have anywhere to go. She would feed you if you were hungry."
The crowd murmured and nodded their heads, some people weeping softly. Several children -- some of whom were returning to the house for the first time after witnessing the crime -- stood quietly and pulled at the grass.
"My granddaughter ... " Basey said, pausing to stare skyward and compose herself. "She was just a baby. She just happened to be there that day."
On the day of the shooting, Basey said, Bolden had gone to Hughes' house because she loved being with her aunt. She was 14.
"Nobody deserves to have their child's life taken," she said, noting that she had seen the rumors and comments people made on social media. "You have the right to say whatever you want to say on there, but I know the truth. She was good."
Basey walked into the house the night before after police released it to her. She said she saw the blood, the marks where her daughter's body lay.
"He took my family from me," Basey said. "Burying somebody is not easy, and this isn't my first baby I've had to bury."
The family recited the Lord's Prayer together and released their balloons. Basey buried her face in her son's shoulder as the crowd began to disperse.
"Look," Basey said, gesturing to the crowd of balloons floating away. "They're staying together."
Metro on 06/16/2019