Ronald Maynor made the discovery Saturday morning.
"You can tell there was some sort of trauma," Maynor said. "He was bleeding to the head and he looked like he had been there for a while."
The boy was so badly injured, Maynor said he didn't even realize that it was one of his neighbors and a close friend of his grandson's.
"It was disturbing, troubling, sad and you know we're not used to that sort of thing," he said.
The Hoke County Sheriff's Office has identified the victim as Jon-Marvin Revels Jacobs.
Authorities say he was leaving a party nearby when he was shot.
Maynor said he was leaving the "party house" across the street.
"We can hear the noise over there. It sounds like they're partying, a lot of profanity. At times it sounds like they're fighting," he said.
Neighbors across the street told Eyewitness News that they have fun, but don't fight. And that it certainly wasn't the case Friday Night.
"The little boy come to our house and we do a little drinking and play pool and we told him you're not old enough to be here, you need to go home," said Issac Nesby. "Little boy didn't have no problem and then he left."
Nesby says what happened after isn't on him.
"At the time whenever he left the house, it was an incident dealing with some of his friends that he hangs out with every day. They were supposedly coming back down the road and they were shooting," said Nesby.
The Hoke County Sheriff's Office says they're following a number of leads but so far don't think Jacobs was the intended target in the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office immediately at 910-875-5111.