Teenager Curtis Junior Pierre was described as a respectful, vibrant and wonderful teenager at his funeral yesterday.
But when he stormed a Claxton Bay bar last month with a gun-toting accomplice, those qualities were not noticeable.
Pierre was beaten by angry patrons who turned on him as his accomplice fled. He died eight days later in hospital.
It was a sombre farewell at Compassionate Heart Ministry, Claxton Bay, yesterday where mourners congregated for the 16-year-old’s farewell.
Instead of the usual sermon, they were schooled on proper parenting methods. Pained at the death of his former Sunday school student, pastor Lyndon Ramnansingh believes Pierre was influenced by a friend.
However, that friend who left him stranded at PJ’s Recreation Club along Mount Pleasant Road was yet to be caught by Couva police up to yesterday evening.
In his sermon, Ramnansingh said the upbringing of model and lawful citizens was not up to the Government and the police, but the role of parents.
A 6 pm curfew, getting to know their friends, monitoring their electronic devices and social network accounts and frequent conversations about their lives were guidelines that he outlined for parents.
Saying that they were accountable to God for the way their children were brought up, he said a lesson must be learnt from Pierre’s death: That parents and elders must now take control of the community.
“This boy had just become a teenager. Sometimes at that age, it is very tricky. It is when they think they know it all but that is the age when you need to guard your children. That is the age when, sometimes, you need to forcefully lock them in the house. You make sure they are inside because the Devil wants to play with their minds.
“I believe in my heart that my 15-year-old cannot be outside at 6 o’clock and I practice that today. If you go, I go. No you’re going with friends. We are living in a time when the Devil will set up your children, he will send young people in your lives to send them astray. We need to prevent them from doing so,” Ramnansingh said.
Barely able to read the eulogy, Pierre’s aunt, Cheronne Francis, said while the family is pained at his death, they accept it as part of God’s plan.
She said Pierre had a fun-loving personality and his life promised wonderful things.
Pierre, who turned 16 on April 29, died at the San Fernando General Hospital on May 3, a week after he was beaten unconscious at PJ’s Recreation Club. Reports stated that Pierre and a gun-toting accomplice walked into the club and immediately kicked casino operator Lui Luo onto an automatic roulette machine and robbed him of almost $2,000.
The gunman then walked into the casino room and robbed patrons of cash and jewelry while Pierre chased behind club owner, Phoolmatie John, who ran from the bar and into her house. As he kicked open the door to John’s home, there was a scuffle between John’s son, Niben Beepat, and himself. By that time, his accomplice bolted, leaving him to fend for himself.
Angry bar patrons responded to John’s cries for help and ran into the house. They dragged Pierre outside and beat him unconscious. He was taken to hospital by ambulance where he remained in a coma until his death.
Pierre’s mother, Kndra Commissiong, in an earlier interview with the T&T Guardian, said that the patrons and bar owners went too far in dishing out vigilante justice.
“I am not saying what he did was right, but they did not have to beat him so badly,” she said then.
“After they hit him the first blow and he fell on the ground they could have called the police. I don’t even know what they beat my son with, all his ears was bust up.”
In closing his sermon yesterday, Ramnansingh said he hoped that Pierre spoke to God during his coma so that his soul could be saved.