Victims of Fresno homicide are victimized again

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The strength of a parent's love is hard to measure.

When Justin Hesketh and Brandon Moore were gunned down in December 2011, their families placed crosses bearing their names right near the scene of the crime at Polk and Herndon.

For them, the crosses embody the teenagers who will not ever grow up.

Brandon Moore's father, Kenny Moore said, "This is something tangible. Yeah, in a way this is Brandon and it is Justin now because it's what we have. It's what we have left. Every time I drive by here or the cemetery, I tell my son that I love him."

And every year, on the anniversary of their deaths, they release sky lanterns from the same spot.

A couple of them even landed at Justin's mother's and sister's homes, several blocks away but two weeks ago, someone broke his cross.

A week later, with his dad already working on a solution, someone knocked over Brandon's.

But this weekend the strength of a parent's love is measured in pounds, the pounds of a hammer to metal and the pounding of a father's heart as he reaches down deep and uses all his breath to keep his son as close as possible.

With his family and Justin's sister standing watch, Kenny Moore replaced the wooden crosses with metal to make it harder for vandals to twist the knife on a wound that will not go away.

"My heart's still broken. It'll always be broken and when people do things like this it just breaks it even a little bit more," Moore said.

Broken hearted but still, the love of a parent is now measured in the strength of steel.