Family and friends gathered along the Keansburg boardwalk Sunday afternoon to remember a young man who was killed in a shooting nearby earlier this week.

Over 100 mourners released red and green balloons into the sky as a final tribute to 28-year-old Paco Moore.

"Growing up without a father, he was our father. He taught me everything I know," said Khalil Moore, Paco's brother.

Moore was shot on Carr Avenue in Keansburg Monday night.

He leaves behind a toddler and a wife who is pregnant with the couple's second child.

"He has a baby boy coming next month, and it's going to be a Paco Jr.," Khalil said. "He was a protector. If he sees a random person getting jumped, he's going to help that person even if he didn't know who they were."

According to his family, Moore was at a local park with his fiancée and child when he noticed a vehicle pull up at a laundromat across the street. He ran toward it and that's where the gunfire erupted.

"He saw the car pull up, and that's when he gave his baby to his fiancée," Khalil said. "That's when he ran across the street and told Julia to run."

Neighbors said bullets flew in multiple directions during the shooting, with at least one nearly striking a woman inside a nearby home as well.

"Keansburg is one square mile that has a beach, an amusement park and a boardwalk," Khalil said. "There isn't any reason for any guns to be out here. It's a family place."

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Bureau and the Keansburg Police Department are investigating the shooting as a homicide.