Jasper Wu was supposed to turn 2 in a matter of weeks, but that won't happen. He was killed in an Oakland freeway shooting earlier this month.
His family on Friday said their final farewells during an emotional ceremony that was attended by the Oakland police chief and California Highway Patrol officers.
The sound of heartbreak as a family’s cry for their baby boy spilled out of the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
"The mother told me personally that she was completely overwhelmed," Fremont Councilmember Yang Shao said.
During the service for Wu, attendees watched him grow up on a screen, from his first photo as a newborn to a video of him smiling in his car seat.
Nearly two weeks ago, the family was driving from San Francisco to their home in Fremont when a stray bullet struck the toddler as the family was on Interstate 880 in Oakland.
Wu’s grandfather gave an emotional eulogy.
"At one point that got us all crying, saying that little body, how could he sustain this kind of impact of a bullet," Carl Chan with the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce said.
Oakland police Chief LeRonne Armstrong paid his respects to the family. Members of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and the CHP, the agency in charge of the investigation, did so as well.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
"You oftentimes realize that this is happening nearly daily in our city, that some family is burying a loved one," Armstrong said.
Armstrong was referring to the death of a 29-year-old mother of two who was shot and killed Thursday morning while in a car on Interstate 80 heading towards the Bay Bridge toll plaza.
"The family also wanted to express that they do not wish to see anymore of this kind of killing, not only for little Jasper but for any innocent people driving on the street," Chan said.
At the end, the family took part in a tradition that involves burning offerings so that their little boy can enjoy them in the afterlife.
"They were burning all those paper-made houses, toys and even money – fake money of course – as if they can be delivered through the flame to their loved ones in heaven," Shao said.
The Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce said its reward for any information that could lead to an arrest in the deadly shooting of Wu is at least $10,000 and will likely go higher.
Authorities still have not released a name of a suspect or a description of a car that was involved.
