Seven-year-old Aaris Conway was climbing a tree in his backyard in California, when he accidentally hanged himself with his karate belt.

“He wanted to come outside to play basketball,” Aaris’s mother Evelyn Briggs said. “Then he climbs in the tree that [the neighborhood kids] all climb in and hung himself.”

Briggs claims that Aaris had only been in the yard for about 20 minutes when it got quiet. She went outside to investigate with Aaris’s brother, Aaron, who, clearly distraught, said that he tried to pull his brother down, but it was too late.

“I was trying and trying not to pour any more tears, but I can’t help it,” he said.

Briggs said that there was nothing unusual about her son’s request to play outside alone and she’s still in shock about her baby’s death.

“I was screaming. But I realized I have to go grab my baby and so we got him untangled. He fell and I shook him. I did chest compression, CPR,” she said.