We should ve been at the beach. It would ve been his first time.
Had it not been for the tragic afternoon of Feb. 12 when gunmen opened fire on Stanley Freeman Jr. as he was leaving his Knoxville high school, he would be spending his 17th birthday on the shores of Panama City Beach, Florida.
Instead, his family gathered Friday at his gravesite to lay a blanket full of his childhood photos with his big, bright smile over his resting place. Together, they tried to make sense of his sudden loss.
In the three months since his passing, Stanley Freeman s family says they have become closer than ever, leaning on each other to cope with the devastating grief. They re working to keep alive the memory of a teen who worked hard at everything he did but was killed in what police say was a case of mistaken identity.