Carnival-like send-off for J’Layna

Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

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In a man­ner re­flec­tive of her short but vi­va­cious and colour­ful lifestyle, friends, rel­a­tives and school­mates of nine-year-old J’Lay­na Arm­strong yes­ter­day paid their fi­nal re­spects to her, true to her own unique life.

Dur­ing her fu­ner­al ser­vice at the St Patrick’s RC Church, Port-of-Spain, throngs of mourn­ers, in­clud­ing school­mates from the near­by St Patrick’s New­town Girls’ RC School, filled the aisles of the church to pay their fi­nal re­spects.

Dur­ing his homi­ly, Dea­con Nigel Thomas lament­ed the trag­ic cir­cum­stances be­hind her death and urged com­mu­ni­ties to take ac­tion and con­front crim­i­nal­i­ty, even as the first signs of way­ward­ness ap­peared among chil­dren.

Thomas ad­mit­ted that while tak­ing a stand can be dif­fi­cult, such a change was need­ed to cor­rect prob­lems be­fore they grew in­to ma­jor is­sues.

“At times, we will see a lit­tle boy or even a lit­tle girl go­ing astray and yes, I know the sign of the times, but be brave... if you stand in Christ, be brave, go to the par­ents and say, ‘Lis­ten, I have no­ticed this is what is hap­pen­ing’.”

Dur­ing the eu­lo­gy, one of J’Lay­na’s rel­a­tives, who did not iden­ti­fy her­self, re­called the pri­ma­ry school­er as a sassy but re­spect­ful child who lived her life to the fullest.

Re­call­ing her time as a ju­nior mas­quer­ad­er, the woman said while J’Lay­na’s life was cut short, she was op­ti­mistic that she was in a bet­ter place and urged those clos­est to the child to nev­er for­get the pos­i­tiv­i­ty she brought to their lives.

“I know you’re wear­ing the most mag­nif­i­cent, heav­en­ly bon­net, stand­ing tall as the lit­tle miss of the an­gels, be­cause even though she may have stopped mas­querad­ing on our stage here too soon, she is now be­gin­ning her great­est per­for­mance yet,” the woman said.

“I want you to know you can go now, take your crowns, take the rhythm in your lit­tle feet and go lead your pa­rade in heav­en.”

Fol­low­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, the solemn na­ture of the oc­ca­sion was quick­ly re­placed by a fes­tive, Car­ni­val-like at­mos­phere as mourn­ers be­gan their pro­ces­sion to Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery, ac­com­pa­nied by mas­quer­aders, moko jumbies and mu­sic trucks.

Sev­er­al of J’Lay­na’s peers were seen sport­ing cos­tumes she wore dur­ing her time as a mas­quer­ad­er, their own way of pay­ing trib­ute to their friend.

As the fi­nal rites were read at the ceme­tery, one of J’Lay­na’s rel­a­tives re­flect­ed on her young life.

“We should be cel­e­brat­ing her life, not speak­ing through pain, we should be light­ing can­dles for her fu­ture, not for what was tak­en away. Crowns, not ca­su­al­ties. J’Lay­na de­served to live and grow and be­come every­thing she was meant to be. She was loved and liked and that will nev­er be tak­en away.”

J’Lay­na was gunned down along­side 20-year-old Chelsea Ed­wards, Obateaiye Lat­iff and her un­cle Asim Arm­strong along the La­dy Young Road, Mor­vant, on the night of April 19th.

Po­lice re­port­ed that J’Lay­na and oth­ers were trav­el­ling in a red Mit­subishi Lancer when an­oth­er car drove along­side them.

Gun­men in that ve­hi­cle re­port­ed­ly opened fire on the red Mit­subishi Lancer, killing J’Lay­na and the oth­ers in­stant­ly.

Po­lice found 30 spent 5.56 shells and a quan­ti­ty of spent 9 mm rounds at the scene.

As of yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, no one was ar­rest­ed in re­la­tion to J’Lay­na’s mur­der.