7-year-old shot while playing video games in Fayetteville will be remembered for his hugs, mom says

WRAL News spoke Wednesday with Zion’s mother, Myra Gibbs, who remembers hearing gunshots outside before she ran downstairs and found her son in a pool of blood.

Myra Gibbs said Zion was at their home on Denmark Drive playing Fortnite when he was hit by a drive-by shooter’s gun. Zion was taken to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, where he died of his injuries several days later. His funeral was held on June 19.

Myra Gibbs told WRAL News that her son was eating cheese fries at Kickback Jack’s, one of his favorite restaurants, and playing Fortnite on his Nintendo Switch on the couch when the shots rang out.

Zion told his mother he would be ready for bed in a moment before the shots were fired.

“(The shots) were getting closer… I was already downstairs when I heard them hit the house,” Myra Gibbs described.

Her 18-year-old twins, Zion’s older siblings, crouched down when they heard the gunshots, and Myra Gibbs called out to her son.

“I called Zion’s name… and then he was already sitting bent over on the floor,” she said.

Myra Gibbs said six bullets hit her home. One went through a window and hit Zion in the face.

Myra Gibbs said she didn’t realize at first that her son had been shot.

“I honestly thought he threw up after eating the cheese fries. I didn’t think my baby had been shot,” she said.

Myra Gibbs, a 911 operator, called 911 and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation and chest compressions.

“That’s when 911 came in… and I never thought I’d be in an emergency like that,” she said.

There is no information about a suspect and no one has been arrested.

Myra Gibbs, as Zion’s mother, said, “I’m getting a little nervous and impatient,” though she admitted she knows investigators are working hard to find the shooter.

Myra Gibbs said Zion, a second-grader at Benjamin Martin Elementary School, was looking forward to starting summer camp next week. He was also excited to see his older sibling, who just graduated from high school, go to college.

Myra Gibbs said her son wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up. To honor Zion, firefighters decorated a firefighter uniform with the boy’s name so his family could keep it. There was also a parade featuring first responders, including several fire trucks and emergency workers who responded to the shooting.

At Zion’s funeral, firefighters bid farewell to the boy, and Myra Gibbs designed the funeral program to resemble a comic book because Zion loved superheroes.

Myra Gibbs said she will miss Zion’s smile and hugs the most. She said she and Zion had big plans to spend time together once her older children left home and began their adult lives.

“Sometimes I still can’t believe it… I was forced into being an empty nester,” she said. “That little boy didn’t deserve that.”

Myra Gibbs is appealing to anyone who knows anything about the shooting to come forward, even anonymously.

“If you know something, just say something. I don’t want this to happen to any other child,” she said.

Investigators are asking residents to check their doorbells and security cameras to see if they contain any footage that could help them locate the suspect. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective C. Crews at 910-751-1046.

Myra Gibbs said many of Zion’s dreams will never come true.

“When you look at his death certificate … he will never have a spouse,” she said. “He will never have a profession … he wanted to be a firefighter. He will never put on that uniform.”