By Gaulbert Sutherland
Silent tears streaming down her face, Sharon Fraser yesterday stood at the casket, saying a painful goodbye to her only son. “Since he was a baby, I never leave him. I never give up none of my children. I used to do domestic work just to mind them and it hurt so bad. I just hope and pray that everything would be fine,” she said. “I feel empty without my son. He gone.”
Around her relatives wept and sobbed. Sixteen-year-old Kelvin Anthony Fraser was a quiet youngster who did not deserve death at the hands of police, grieving relatives, friends and villagers said, amid calls for such incidents to stop. “Sometime I smile but inside my heart just bursting. Sometimes when I remember certain things, the tears just come to my eyes. I can’t see my son anymore,” Sharon said.
Fraser, a fourth form student at the Patentia Secondary School, was laid to rest in the Patentia cemetery with relatives and friends wearing red, a colour he loved. On June 7, he was killed in what police said was a scuffle with a rank who was attempting to arrest him. A post-mortem examination found he died of shock and haemorrhage from laceration of the lungs caused by gunshot injuries. The teenager was shot in the left side of his chest at close range and several pellets were retrieved from his body.
“This was a young man that all of us know was a decent young man,” said Pastor Mark Benn, delivering the sermon during a thanksgiving service at the New Life Full Gospel Fellowship Church at Patentia, West Bank Demerara. “What happened should never have happened,” he said as a large number of relatives, classmates, villagers and sympathisers wept and repeated one question over and over. “Why?”
How many more must fall before justice is done, one cousin asked. “We can’t afford to keep losing our sons and daughters,” Benn said.
White flowers scattered inside his casket, there was scarcely a dry eye during Fraser’s last service in the church where he was baptised and where he was a dancer up to a year ago when a serious leg injury forced him to quit.
Following a viewing at his home, where he and his sister were raised, his body was taken to the church where relatives remembered him in tributes and songs. His cousin, Aliena Edun said Fraser was a loving and caring son and though death was sudden and his life short, it was filled with fun adventure, family and friends. Fraser was a quiet person, who enjoyed listening to music, she said telling the congregation, “only God has the answers to all the questions you have right about now.”
“When will it stop? We searching for answers. Answers,” said a friend who added that persons must resist but do so in a peaceful way. She questioned why Guyanese should live in fear.
A representative from the Education Department said a future leader was lost while Fraser’s class teacher said he was smart, kind and respectful. “He was what everyone would have wanted in a son,” he said.
“It is good for Christians to stand up for their rights,” said Elder James Fanfair, adding that this did not necessarily mean in a political way.
In his sermon, Benn recalled his shock when he was informed of Kelvin’s death. How could a policeman kill such a young man? he asked. In such a situation what can you say to the parents? he further questioned, while adding that no amount of sympathy can bring the teen back. Why? There must be an answer, he said before suggesting that there may be a divine purpose. There should be justice, he declared. “Today is Sharon’s case. Tomorrow it could be yours.” Benn said persons have to lend their voices and stand up for social justice in Guyana. Such incidents must stop, he declared. “Too much of foolishness happening in the nation,” he said pointing to the number of young men who have lost their lives. “There has to be a bigger purpose for God to allow this to take place.”
Benn warned that these are serious times and parents must do much more to build a relationship with their children. If the home is in order then the neighbourhood will be in order and the community will fall in line as will the nation, he said, while urging that the adults lead by example. He urged children to respect their parents saying too many boys and girls are wild with no purpose in life. He said parents cannot be too busy with work and other things and must spend quality time with their sons and daughters.
Many agreed that Fraser was a quiet young man. He was a member of the President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana programme in the community and had qualified to go on an expedition, Unit Leader, Marlon Lindo said. He recalled that Fraser was a reliable participant and engaged in community service activities, skills training and physical recreation. “He didn’t really say much, very quiet individual but he was very punctual,” recalled Lindo.
