An 11-year-old boy who survived a brutal attack by his father three years ago has found comfort in the home of detective Mike Blair and his wife, WKRC reported.

Blair responded to the scene in 2018 when Ronnie Oneal III carried out the attack in Riverview, Florida, killing the 22-year-old mother, Kenyatta Barron, and their 9-year-old daughter, Ron’Niveya.

Ronnie, who was 8 years old at the time, was stabbed by his father. In the following days, Blair frequently visited the boy in the hospital. At one point during the visits, the child asked the officer to stay and watch a movie with him. 

“I called my wife, and we were planning to go on a date night that night, and I said, ‘Hey, instead of doing date night, do you mind if we watch a movie with this kid?'” Blair said.

His spouse, Ronnie Oneal III, agreed. But she also brought up the idea of adopting Ronnie, who was staying with relatives temporarily. 

“I had already known that I would want to take Ronnie home with us, starting that night,” she said.

After speaking with their five children to make sure they are also on board, the couple completed a five-month process and were finally able to call Ronnie one of their own.

“I go to a different church, I have a different brother and sister, different mom and dad, different house, but it’s pretty cool to be with them,” Ronnie said. “They are really nice people. They are the best moms and dads, and they really take care of me. There is no one else better than them.”

Still, the child often thinks about his mother and sister.

“She was just a good mom. We did like a lot of things together. She was nice, pushed me on the swing, made me some good wings,” he said. “My sister, she couldn’t talk, but she could still move her head, so I learned sign language. She was very nice.”

The boy refers to Blair’s mantra to ease the pain.

“It goes, ‘I am safe, I am loved, and I am part of this family,'” Ronnie said. 

As Blavity previously reported, an attorney said Oneal shot his girlfriend with a shotgun and beat her to death, then went back into the house and used a hatchet to kill his daughter, who was on the autism spectrum while living with cerebral palsy. Oneal was also accused of soaking his son in gasoline, lighting him on fire and stabbing him multiple times, The Washington Post reports. 

The father, who decided to represent himself in the case, was sentenced to three life terms, plus an additional 60 years in prison.