3 Young Boys Shot and Killed by Dad Had Strong Bond: ‘Always Encouraging Each Other’

Doerman boys.Photo:Chad Doerman/Facebook

Chad Doerman/Facebook

The Doerman brothers, 7, 4, and 3, were inseparable.

“I would see them at the ball park,” Kristen Bennett, president of the New Richmond Youth Sports Association of New Richmond, Ohio, tells PEOPLE.

“They were always playing with each other,” she says. “They got along so well. They were always encouraging each other.”

She remembers how the oldest brother, 7, who was learning how to play baseball, would try to make the middle brother, 4, who was still playing T-ball, feel better if he didn’t hit the ball.

“’That’s no problem,’ I heard him say to him,” says Bennett. “’I struck out too.’”

Their 3-year-old brother was too young to play baseball. “But he loved wearing the oldest brother’s jersey,” she says.

It was in the very yard the boys loved so much that they lost their lives.

On Thursday, their father, Chad Doerman, 32, allegedly lined up his three young sons, in the yard of their home in Monroe Township and shot them execution-style, prosecutors said.

Chad Doerman.Clermont County Sheriff’s Office

Clermont County Sheriff’s Office

The family has asked friends to not disclose the names of the boys.

Arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated murder, Doerman is being held at the Clermont County Jail on a $20 million bond.

As he awaits his next court date, the boys’ family and the entire community is reeling from the deaths of the happy-go-lucky little boys who died at the hands of their father.

The boys’ mother and 14-year-old sister “are doing as well as can be expected,” Bennett says. “They are both heartbroken and devastated. They are just trying to get through each day.”

That’s why, she says, she and the association are helping the family to let the world “remember the boys for who they were.”

The Doerman brothers.Rachel Brown/Facebook

Rachel Brown/Facebook

On Sunday, the association is holding a memorial for the boys at the New Richmond Youth Ballfields in New Richmond.

“We want everyone to know who these boys were,” she says.

She would like the event to be upbeat and positive, like the boys were. “We don’t want it to be somber and sad,” she says.

The last memory she has of the boys is of them “laughing and giggling” as their parents tried to get them into their seats after being at the ball park on Wednesday.

“They were typical little boys and didn’t want to get into their seats,” she says.

Everything with Doerman and the family seemed fine that night, she recalls. “Nothing was amiss. Nothing was wrong. I go back to those last conversations and think, ‘What could I have done?’”

“I just want to remember those cute little smiling faces,” she says.

The event is also honoring and thanking the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, Monroe Township Fire Department and other first responders.

The association is also selling t-shirts dedicated to the boys’ memories. “All proceeds go to the family,” says Bennett.

In addition, the boys’ aunt set up aGoFundMeto help defray funeral expenses.

“We want the world to know how amazing these babies were,” their mom’s sister, Rachel Brown, wrote in another post on Facebook. “They are not only this tragedy.

“They were happy and funny, so very funny, goofy, kind loving boys. They’re beautifuland deserve to be proudly displayed. They fished and played ball, they lovedfiercely and with their entire hearts.

“They played together just as hard. Nothing will ever be right without them, but they need to be seen for the blessings they were, the happy lives they lived, the mom who loves them more than herself.

Doerman’s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

source: people.com