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A day of grief
11-month-old killed by cop's bullet buriedBY COREY ROBINSON Observer staff reporter robinsonc@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
EASTER Sunday, one of the most important days on the Christian calendar, was one of grief yesterday for a St Catherine couple who buried their 11-month-old son whose young life was taken by a cop's bullet.
A despondent Janice Knight rest her elbows on her late son's football as she reflects on his life at yesterday's funeral service for the 11-month-old infant at the Apostle Sinai Spiritual Church of God on March Pen Road in Spanish Town. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)
Tears flowed freely as more than 400 mourners crammed the Apostle Sinai Spiritual Church of God on March Pen Road in Spanish Town to view the body of the 11-month-old infant, Brodrick Wright.
The child's father, Bodrick Wright, 21, wept uncontrollably as he whispered to his son's body through the glass cover of the casket.
A despondent Audrey Allen, the infant's grandmother, despite being comforted by family members, could not contain her grief as she openly bellowed for her deceased grandson.
".Me want Pharrell (the infant's alias), me want touch him. Let go of me let me touch me baby," Allen yelled as relatives restrained her and took her to the back bench of the community church.
"Let me go, let me go," the woman shouted, before collapsing in the arms of the two women, who with grief etched on their faces, tried hard to hold back their tears.
For the child's mother, Janice Knight, the heart-wrenching ordeal was too much to bear.
Bodrick Wright, the father of 11-month-old Brodrick Wright, grieves as he looks at his son through the glass covering of his blue and white casket yesterday.
The slender-framed woman, clutching a soccer ball which belonged to her son, broke down and had to be ushered outside the church by family members.
But despite the sombre mood there was a look of anger on the faces of several in the congregation.
Some March Pen Road residents hissed and murmured as the casket was positioned at the alter in front of Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Central, Sharon Hay-Webster; Information Minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, Labour Minister Pearnel Charles and Superintendent Terrence Bent, who had turned out to give their support to the family.
"A carelessness them use and kill off the youth pickney," a female member of the congregation was overheard saying.
"Is these kinds of things they go on with all the while. That's why me can't like nothing name police," another woman said as she peered through one of the church windows.
The service, which went well beyond the time allotted, was packed with tributes through poetry and songs from grieving relatives before the body was interred at Woods Hall District in Clarendon.
Hay-Webster urged the residents to help the family in their time of grief.
"No child should be torn from a family whether from this one or any community in Jamaica. When a child is taken by the gun, especially by someone who swore to protect and serve, it becomes even more unbearable... This should have never happened," the MP said, to shouts of approval from the congregation.
Superintendent Bent urged the community, which is one of the trouble spots in the St Catherine North Division, to use Brodrick's death as a call for unity among warring factions.
"We are not here as police officers; we are here as part of the March Pen Road family," Bent said. "This child's death is an example to those persons who use firearms, whether through the law or just the want to use it, that it is not a toy," Bent said. "The loss of a life is not easy to deal with but we must find a positive way to use these losses to build each other up," said the police officer.
The infant who was in the care of his mother on the verandah at their home on March Pen Road on the afternoon of March 6, was killed when a policeman fired his weapon while chasing an illegal taxi operator into the community.
The infant's death sparked a fiery demonstration by residents of March Pen Road, who set up roadblocks and lit fires along the nearby Spanish Town bypass.
Yesterday, Granville Gause, head of the Bureau of Special Investigations - the arm of the force responsible to investigate police shootings - said he was anticipating a "speedy assessment" of the case, which he said had been submitted last Monday to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The policeman implicated in the shooting has since been suspended from the force.
11-month-old killed by cop's bullet buriedBY COREY ROBINSON Observer staff reporter robinsonc@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
EASTER Sunday, one of the most important days on the Christian calendar, was one of grief yesterday for a St Catherine couple who buried their 11-month-old son whose young life was taken by a cop's bullet.
A despondent Janice Knight rest her elbows on her late son's football as she reflects on his life at yesterday's funeral service for the 11-month-old infant at the Apostle Sinai Spiritual Church of God on March Pen Road in Spanish Town. (Photos: Joseph Wellington) Tears flowed freely as more than 400 mourners crammed the Apostle Sinai Spiritual Church of God on March Pen Road in Spanish Town to view the body of the 11-month-old infant, Brodrick Wright.
The child's father, Bodrick Wright, 21, wept uncontrollably as he whispered to his son's body through the glass cover of the casket.
A despondent Audrey Allen, the infant's grandmother, despite being comforted by family members, could not contain her grief as she openly bellowed for her deceased grandson.
".Me want Pharrell (the infant's alias), me want touch him. Let go of me let me touch me baby," Allen yelled as relatives restrained her and took her to the back bench of the community church.
"Let me go, let me go," the woman shouted, before collapsing in the arms of the two women, who with grief etched on their faces, tried hard to hold back their tears.
For the child's mother, Janice Knight, the heart-wrenching ordeal was too much to bear.
Bodrick Wright, the father of 11-month-old Brodrick Wright, grieves as he looks at his son through the glass covering of his blue and white casket yesterday. The slender-framed woman, clutching a soccer ball which belonged to her son, broke down and had to be ushered outside the church by family members.
But despite the sombre mood there was a look of anger on the faces of several in the congregation.
Some March Pen Road residents hissed and murmured as the casket was positioned at the alter in front of Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Central, Sharon Hay-Webster; Information Minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, Labour Minister Pearnel Charles and Superintendent Terrence Bent, who had turned out to give their support to the family.
"A carelessness them use and kill off the youth pickney," a female member of the congregation was overheard saying.
"Is these kinds of things they go on with all the while. That's why me can't like nothing name police," another woman said as she peered through one of the church windows.
The service, which went well beyond the time allotted, was packed with tributes through poetry and songs from grieving relatives before the body was interred at Woods Hall District in Clarendon.
Hay-Webster urged the residents to help the family in their time of grief.
"No child should be torn from a family whether from this one or any community in Jamaica. When a child is taken by the gun, especially by someone who swore to protect and serve, it becomes even more unbearable... This should have never happened," the MP said, to shouts of approval from the congregation.
Superintendent Bent urged the community, which is one of the trouble spots in the St Catherine North Division, to use Brodrick's death as a call for unity among warring factions.
"We are not here as police officers; we are here as part of the March Pen Road family," Bent said. "This child's death is an example to those persons who use firearms, whether through the law or just the want to use it, that it is not a toy," Bent said. "The loss of a life is not easy to deal with but we must find a positive way to use these losses to build each other up," said the police officer.
The infant who was in the care of his mother on the verandah at their home on March Pen Road on the afternoon of March 6, was killed when a policeman fired his weapon while chasing an illegal taxi operator into the community.
The infant's death sparked a fiery demonstration by residents of March Pen Road, who set up roadblocks and lit fires along the nearby Spanish Town bypass.
Yesterday, Granville Gause, head of the Bureau of Special Investigations - the arm of the force responsible to investigate police shootings - said he was anticipating a "speedy assessment" of the case, which he said had been submitted last Monday to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The policeman implicated in the shooting has since been suspended from the force.