Family Of Three Found Dead, 5-Year-Old Boy Was Shot Twice In 'Execution-Style'

Two teenage boys were arrested Monday, Feb. 21, after a 5-year-old boy was found dead inside his home in Michigan, Detroit, alongside his mother and her boyfriend.

Caleb Harris was just five days away from celebrating his sixth birthday when he was shot twice in the face.

"To do this — it’s like a monster would do this," the boy’s grandmother, Shalesa Floyd, told Click on Detroit.

His mother, Lashon Marshall, and her boyfriend, Aaron Benson, were also found dead on Sunday by a relative who stopped by their home after not hearing from the family for weeks, police said.

When family members arrived at the home, they discovered the bodies of Marshall and Benson and called the police authorities.

"They continued to check the house for additional victims, and unfortunately they did find a third victim, a child, in a room deceased," Detroit Police Chief James White said.

The chief added that the boy had been shot multiple times in "execution-style".

"For you to shoot a 5-year-old in the face? Twice? You could have let him go so he could remain and live," Floyd said.

"You could have just left my grandson there alone, I would have come get him," she said.

"He could have grown up to be anything he wanted. He’s our future, he was our future. Why would you take my grandson from me?"

Police said they received a number of tips from the community that led them to the two teen suspects.

Search warrants were obtained and both the suspects were taken into custody without incident. The two boys, 16 and 17, have not been identified.

"There is high confidence that the individuals that we have taken into custody are responsible for this heinous act, and we have been in communication with the prosecutor’s office, and we’ll be submitting a warrant request for the review," White said at a Tuesday press briefing.

The motive behind the slayings is unclear at this time, but police noted that the two suspects knew the victims.

"We have some motive, but we just can’t release it yet, but we’ll try to once the charges are issued from the prosecutor," the chief told reporters.

Charges against the suspects were pending as of late Tuesday.

"What mindset can anyone be in that would shoot a baby in the face intentionally?" relative and state representative Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said.

"You have to be heartless. There is one thing to even a score or have issues with an adult but a child? A child is off-limits."