It’s been a bit more than a month since Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian who had come to the United States legally as a high schooler in 2024, threw himself under a truck on the interstate—a death of despair following the revocation of his legal status by the Trump administration this summer. Among the hundreds gathered to mourn Saturday at Springfield’s St. John Missionary Baptist Church, the grief was still raw and immediate.
The banners on the church walls proclaimed messages of scriptural comfort: “Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is always present. Jehovah Rophe: The Lord heals.” As family members audibly wailed and sobbed, the ministers asked God in English and Haitian Creole for consolation amid heartbreak.
“You are near the brokenhearted. We pray that you would draw near us today,” prayed Pastor Ernie Brown of St. John. “When questions have no answers, give them strength to trust you with what we cannot understand.”
Many unanswerable questions hung over Bel’s funeral. Here are two. How could a country extend such a shining future to a young man like him—only to shatter that future, and him, by suddenly ripping it away? And how could the president who made it happen show his face that same day, just miles down the road, not only to defend that change, but to bask in it?
From Bill Kristol & Andrew Eggar, Substack
SPRINGFIELD, OH – If there was one thing to know about Pierre Damas Bel, it was that he loved his community.
It was the resounding agreement of everyone who spoke, affirmed with nods and “amens” from attendees at the 20-year-old Haitian immigrant’s funeral on Oct. 3 at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield.
“He was my everything,” Bel’s father, Pierre Ronal Bel, wrote in a statement read aloud at the funeral.
Bel’s casket, adorned in colorful flowers, lay before well over 100 family members, friends, coworkers and even strangers grieving the loss of someone they repeatedly called a generous, intelligent young man with a “profound capacity to love” and who never tired of helping others. Bel was an honors student who loved soccer, wanted to become a neurosurgeon and dreamed of building a hospital in his homeland one day.
Flowers placed on top of the casket during the funeral service for Pierre Damas Bel at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church on Oct. 3, 2026
Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch
On Aug. 31, Bel was hit by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 east of Springfield, where he and over 10,000 other Haitians reside, after leaving his vehicle on the side of the road, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
While the official cause of death has not been confirmed by a coroner, Bel’s loved ones are certain he died by suicide, brought on by being bullied for wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ankle monitor following the revocation of Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants.
“Our dear friend and brother may have died by suicide, but he was killed by the system,” Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said at Bel’s funeral service.
Loss of protected status left Bel, Ohio Haitians in despair, confusion
UN says at least 5,700 killed, wounded in Haiti gang crisis this year
Story by AFP
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UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the Gang Suppression Force remains well below its target strength, with only about 1,500 of a planned 5,500 personnel deployed. (EPA Images pic)
GENEVA: Haiti’s gang violence crisis has left at least 5,700 people dead or wounded this year while more than 1,000 women and girls have been raped, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Friday.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
