FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Family members of a 9-year-old boy who was beaten to death in a Fayetteville hotel room last weekend described the boy as happy and loving in an interview on Friday.

Police responded to the Fairfield Inn and Suites at 4249 Ramsey St. on Saturday morning after receiving a call from a guest on the second floor who said she heard a banging noise coming from the room above her. She told a 911 dispatcher that she thought a woman was being beaten.

When police arrived at the hotel, they found Zamarie Chance unresponsive in the hotel room he was sharing with his mother, Chrystal Matthews.

“I want (Zamarie) to be remembered as a real loving child,” said Richard Chance, Zamarie’s stepfather. “He was happy. All of his friends that went to school with him … they all say he was outgoing.”

Richard Chance said he had no indication Matthews would hurt their son.

“She wasn’t a bad person. Maybe she had a medical condition, but I know one thing for sure, she would have never hurt a child,” he said.

Kareem Moore, Zamarie’s biological father who currently lives in Charlotte, said he will never be able to forget the phone call he received from police alerting him that his son was dead.

“It was a small argument. They had spats, and they had spats often,'” he said. “And I was like, ‘Did he just tell me it was a small spat and now my son is dead?'”

Moore said he and his older son had recently become concerned for the child’s safety when Matthews abruptly demanded he bring the child home during a recent visit.

“We’re getting these phone call about, ‘If you don’t get my son home now by such-a-such time, I’m going to call the police,'” said Kareem Moore Jr. “I was like, ‘Zamarie, is there something you been hiding? What’s going on? Why would she snap like that?”

Records show that police have been called to Matthews’ home several times over the past year, including twice for psychiatric help and once for a domestic disturbance just 12 hours before Zamarie was killed.

A police spokesman said during one of the calls to Matthews’ home last year, a caller who described himself as Matthews’ ex-boyfriend said she was acting “possessed.”

Authorities are still unsure why the pair were in the hotel.

Matthews is charged with one count of first-degree murder and was being held in the Cumberland County Detention Center without bond.