Kansas City mourners say goodbye to slain 3-year-old Amorian S.L. Hale

A small white casket positioned near the pulpit held a little boy dressed in a crisp white suit and white bow tie.

A Power Rangers DVD rested on his chest. A stuffed animal was nestled under his arm. A Spider-Man action figure sat nearby.

The innocence the scene evoked only made reality that much harder to stomach for the roughly 150 relatives and friends who came to a south Kansas City church on Monday morning to say their goodbyes to 3-year-old Amorian S.L. Hale.

Eight mornings earlier, a bullet killed Amorian as he slept in his bedroom.

Since then, family, friends and strangers have struggled to deal with grief and anger over his violent death at the hands of whoever peppered his home at 67th Street and Walrond Avenue with roughly two dozen gunshots.

It was the fifth killing of a child this year in Kansas City. In all of last year, the city recorded four homicides involving someone age 16 or younger.

No arrests have been made. Police continue to ask anyone with information to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (474-8477).

Amorian’s mother’s sobs echoed through the sanctuary as mourners filed past the body Monday morning at Memorial Missionary Baptist Church.

Flowers, photographs and stuffed animals flanked the casket, which was covered with blue and white flowers.

His grandfather Eric McKinney spoke softly over Amorian before letting out a yell and collapsing.

The boy’s father, Christopher Hale, bent over the casket and shook his head as he sobbed.

The eulogist spoke of putting to death the myth that God did this. It wasn’t God but the devil, said the Rev. Larry B. Aiken.

God sustains life, Aiken said. Anyone who takes a life is playing God.

“It is never the will of God for a mother and father to bury their child,” he said.

After talking about the prevalence of black-on-black crime, Aiken called for people to come forward and identify Amorian’s killer.

Someone knows who killed him, Aiken said. Someone needs to come forward and be accountable to others and accountable to God.

“You saw the car, you know the license plate, you know who did it,” Aiken said as his voice rose. “That doesn’t mean coming in here and crying to the mother when you know who did it.

“It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to clean up our community.”

Mourners rose to their feet and applauded.

At the end of the service, pallbearers hoisted the small casket on their shoulders and proceeded out, led by Amorian’s father as Aiken sang “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Unable to hold her child, Amorian’s mother, Monee McKinney, clutched a teddy bear instead.

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Kansas City mourners say goodbye to slain 3-year-old Amorian S.L. Hale."