BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Funeral services began Friday for Kareem Badawi, the Baton Rouge teenager killed in the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans.

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A 2024 graduate of Episcopal High School, Kareem,18, was attending the University of Alabama.

The family gathered for a brief prayer service at Masid Al Rahman, a mosque located at the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge.

After the prayer, Kareem’s body was taken for burial. A funeral service will take place after the burial, a tradition in his faith, his relatives said.

Kareem and a group of friends went to New Orleans to celebrate the new year, his father, Belal Badawi said in an interview.

“He is a lovely boy. I lost my son. He’s a good boy,” he said of his son. “Unfortunately, his life ended that quick and with no reason.”

The teen’s former high school football coach, Travis Bourgeois, said Kareem attracted people to him with his smile and sense of humor.

”He had the world ahead of him,” Bourgeois said. “So young, so innocent, such a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Several other former Episcopal High students were with Kareem at the time of the attack, including Parker Vidrine.

Parker was critically injured and remains hospitalized.

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