James Mason Jr., a Flint native and long-time friend of Donte Williams, lights candles with other friends and family of Williams to remember and celebrate his life during a vigil service on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016 at the Flat Lot in downtown Flint, Mich. Earlier that day, Williams was shot multiple times and killed at the lot. “We ain’t have to be blood to be brothers,” Mason said of his friend of almost 15 years. “Sometime water is thicker than blood when you’ve been through the mud. That’s how we was.”