It was ex­treme­ly hot when peo­ple start­ed gath­er­ing for the fu­ner­al of Jo­mol ‘MJ’ Mod­este just af­ter 2 pm at his En­ter­prise Street, Ch­agua­nas home yes­ter­day.

The nine-year-old was felled by a bul­let to the back just af­ter 8 pm on Oc­to­ber 15.

At the time, Jo­mol was at­tend­ing a foot­ball match on the African Recre­ation­al Ground, which is be­hind his home.

How­ev­er, he nev­er made it back home as he was shot and killed as gun­men opened fire close to the grounds.

When the white hearse from David Guide and Son Fu­ner­al Ser­vices ar­rived in front his home to be­gin the ser­vice, the sun dipped be­neath the clouds, turn­ing the op­pres­sive heat in­to a more man­age­able cool. It took no ef­fort for the four men as­signed as pall­bear­ers to car­ry the tiny, white cas­ket to the front yard.

The me­dia was asked to keep its dis­tance, which pre­vent­ed Guardian Me­dia from hear­ing the eu­lo­gy or prayers.

From our po­si­tion on the pave­ment op­po­site his home, how­ev­er, we were still able to hear the hymns, Amaz­ing Grace be­ing the most dis­tinct.

The wails of the women and girls clos­est to the cas­ket pierced the un­com­fort­able si­lence that ac­com­pa­nied the en­trance of the cas­ket to the yard. The mood shift­ed then, and even those gath­ered in the street be­gan weep­ing open­ly.

Hours af­ter he had been killed, and via a po­lice re­lease, Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Christo­pher said the po­lice ser­vice had spent years and re­sources in the com­mu­ni­ty of En­ter­prise. She said that would con­tin­ue.

There was a strong po­lice pres­ence at the fu­ner­al yes­ter­day, with most of the of­fi­cers dressed im­pos­ing­ly in black and armed with ri­fles.

En­ter­prise Street, where the fu­ner­al was held, is very nar­row and un­able to ac­com­mo­date two-lane traf­fic once the ve­hi­cles trans­port­ing mourn­ers start­ed park­ing on the road, but the po­lice of­fi­cers present were proac­tive in their man­age­ment of ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic.

In the week since Jo­mol’s killing, four men have been held in re­la­tion to the shoot­ing. All have since been re­leased, with on­ly one be­ing charged for pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.

Af­ter the fu­ner­al, the body was tak­en to the Long­denville Pub­lic Ceme­tery for in­ter­ment.