More than six-months after he was shot and killed by Cleveland police, the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice have finally had his body cremated.

Just steps from his home, young Tamir was shot and killed Nov. 22, 2014, while playing with a toy gun in a neighborhood park. Since then, his remains have been kept in storage by his family, all of whom did not to want to bury him until the police investigation into his killing had been completed.

The Daily Kos reports with the investigation showing no signs of ending anytime soon, the family decided to put his spirit to rest earlier this month.

"Tamir has been cremated," said Walter Madison, the Ohio-based attorney working with Rice's family. "His mother made the grief-stricken decision to have her son cremated."

Much has happened since Nov. 22: With the family having to incur a daily storage cost to have the boy's remains preserved and unable to keep up, his mother Samaria Rice was recently evicted from her home and, the Washington Post reports, forced to move into a homeless shelter.

"What everyone needs to understand is that Samaria Rice is a mother first," Madison said. "Whether in life or death, her instinct is to take care of her child. Him not being put to final rest was just physically, emotionally, psychologically unsettling to her."

Police were called to the park that dreadful day after an area resident spotted the boy in the park with the gun and called authorities, though the Washington Post now notes arriving officers were never told that the caller also stressed he thought the weapon the boy was playing with was a toy.

Within seconds of officers arriving and apparently not taking the time to raise any questions, young Tamir lay dead from a bullet wound to the chest. The police investigation is ongoing, but authorities reportedly have already started to still themselves for the protests that are almost certain to follow.

Soon, the Cuyahoga County sheriff's department will turn over all of its findings to the county prosecutor's office, and a decision to charge, proceed to a grand jury or simply allow the officers to walk will be rendered.

Either way, the pain remains almost unbearable for Samaria Rice and her family.

"My family is very disappointed with how this investigation has transpired," said Latonya Goldsby, a cousin of Tamir Rice. "I feel so disgusted with the city of Cleveland for not showing some type of compassion to my family. We had to bury a 12-year-old kid."