WHERE IS THE LOVE? Ewarton pastor makes appeal at burial of mob victim

July 15, 2021 0 By Horace Mills

A clergyman today appealed for an end to badmouthing and callousness; this as he addressed mourners at the burial of a youth who was chopped to death while allegedly stealing goats.

“We are living in a society where people are becoming courser and courser everyday,” Bishop Howard Newell lamented. “You sometimes ask yourselves the question: Where is the love? Where is the care? Where is the deep consideration one for another?”

Bishop Newell posed the questions at Ewarton Cemetery in St. Catherine, during the burial of 20-year-old David Walker, otherwise called ‘Victor’, from Clarke’s Avenue in Ewarton.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had stated that, on May 4, a mob chopped and killed Walker at Pedro River in St. Ann shortly after he, along with other men, allegedly stole goats in the Kellits area of Clarendon. The other men escaped.

Walker was to be buried last week Friday, but the funeral director did not show up with the body. He claimed that the burial could not have taken place because he found out late that the wrong person’s image was on Walker’s casket.

The family changed the funeral director and went ahead with the burial this morning.

A smaller number of people showed up this time round, compared to last week.

A sister of the deceased wept openly.

When persons were asked if they wanted to do a tribute to Walker, no one responded. Walker, however, is said to be a former restaurant worker who loved to cook.

Bishop Newell told the gathering that, although the circumstances under which Walker died are unfortunate, he was a respectful youth.

“When Victor sees you, he is gonna tell you morning,” the clergyman said. “He was that mannerable young man, very respectful. It is unfortunate the situation that happened.”

Bishop Newell, in the meantime, urged persons to highlight the positive attributes in other people instead of focus merely on the negative.

“In everybody, we can find something good about them. And we need to highlight the positive that we can find in somebody. Sometimes many of us dwell on the negative; that’s not good,” the bishop said.

He continued: “The scripture tells us that, if a man be overtaken in a fault, he which are spiritual should restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. We have a situation where, at times, people only see the bad things in you. That is not good. The Bible encourages us that we ought to be kindly affectioned one to another; we should show love one to another.”

In the meantime, this is at least the second time within the last few years that the bereaved family is being thrown into an emotional tailspin. A few years ago, one of Walker’s brothers went missing without a trace and is believed to be dead.

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