The family of a young man killed in a drive-by shooting has learned that his body was sent to the wrong funeral home and inadvertently cremated as they planned his burial.

"I'm not denying responsibility. This was a horrible error on my part, on my office’s part," New Orleans coroner Dr. Frank Minyard told Fox 8, as he spoke for the first time about the mistake that led to the cremation of Ralph Bias, 20, who was killed in New Orleans last week.

Minyard says the system failed in three places: first at the Heritage Funeral home where the body was first sent, the St.John's Crematorium and at his office where an employee did not follow protocol to have the body checked by a family member.