Hundreds of families from the immigrant community attended the annual World Refugee Day in Buffalo on Saturday. Not far from their minds is the memory of 12-year-old Badradeen 'Badr' Elwaseem.

His life was tragically cut short by a stray bullet back in April 2019.

"I don't want to cry no more, I want to just pray, and I want people to just pray for him," said Badr's brother Naj Elwaseem.

Naj said the family moved to Buffalo from Yemen a few years ago for a better life. He says since his younger brother's passing, they had been living a nightmare.

Badr had big plans to do things to help his community and other refugees, according to Naj.

"My brother, he was a well talented gamer," Naj said. "He always wanted to be big time gamer. He always told me, 'I want to be big and I want to help my friends, I want to give back to my community, I want to help the people in Somalia, I want to help the people in Yemen, Palestine, I want to help as many people as I can.'"

Saturday, the city of Buffalo remembered Badr with a plaque and a tree that will be planted by the city's forest department in his honor.  

"It really hit the community really hard," said Jessica Lazarin of city of Buffalo's Office of New Americans. "It's important for us to know pain is there. We're not just forgetting about it."  

The Buffalo Police and the FBI are still searching for whoever is responsible for Badr's death. His family says they've leaned on the support of the local Western New York Community. 

"It helps us with our day," Naj said. "It helps that the community still remembers him and we're still in the search for my brother's killer."
 

Anyone with information is asked to call or text Buffalo's tipline at (716) 847-2255.