Garnet Wilis and his cousin were shooting bottle rockets at cars when two men in one of the cars stopped. Troopers say the young men chased the boys, and that's when Willis ran into traffic and was killed.

The prosecutors say they need more time to figure if a crime has actually been committed, and until they do so, the two men are set free -- including Mario Haley.

Despite having a criminal record, his family says he's not the type to want to hurt a young boy.

Haley has been locked up in the Pierce County Jail ever since early Friday morning when he was arrested in the aftermath of a deadly accident.

Two 12-year-old boys were shooting fireworks at cars -- including Haley's. The two pulled over and chased after the boys.

Garnet Wilis tried to get away by running into traffic, but tripped over the median and was hit by another car.

"My heart goes out to his family," said Shawnna Blatnik, Haley's girlfriend. "As a mother, I couldn't imagine the loss of my child. That's one thing he said to me is that he would never hurt anybody's children."

She admits Haley has a criminal record for assault, but says some of that comes from trying to protect her during an attack by other women.

"They try to make the charges worse than they are but with Mario he protected me and his child that was inside of me," Blatnik said.

She says he recently got baptized.

"He turned his life around a couple of months ago so we've got the church background and everybody has been praying so we'll keep our fingers crossed," she said.

But the families of Wilis and his cousin, Jon Winterhawk, say there's no question the men should be charged with manslaughter, claiming they caused the death by running after the boys and threatening them.

But for now, no charges are being filed in this case.

"We need to have more investigation done," said Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Jerry Costello. "The lead detective wants to talk with some additional witnesses and to clarify some information and when we have all of the facts as best that we can understand them then we'll apply them to the unique legal questions in this case."

So for now, the other suspect Tyrone Sherrod and Haley are free, while another family grieves a loss and sets a funeral.

Even though Haley has been set free on this case, he's still in jail, being held for parole violation on another unrelated case.

The prosecutor says that fact will have no bearing on the decision whether to file manslaughter charges in this case. That decision could come any day.