WDSU Channel 6 News--A mother wailed and a grandmother wept Friday as the cover of a short, padded casket closed over Keira "Pooh Bear" Holmes, who would have turned 2 on Thursday but for a stray bullet that snatched her life this week outside the B.W. Cooper public housing complex. At a funeral marked by the presence of two New Orleans mayors, Keira's body lay front and center, flower petals strewn around her head.
She wore a long dress, a jeweled earring and pink and tan ribbons in her hair. More than 200 mourners came to pay their respects during a ceremony at the Abundant Life Tabernacle on Franklin Ave.
No one mentioned the gunshot that ripped through her tiny body on Sunday during what police say was an attack on 19-year-old Emmett Allen. Police have implicated four men in the shooting, one of whom was killed Monday.
But it was clear that Keira's death had become the latest symbol of the city's struggles with murderous violence and a homicide rate that far exceeds that of any other U.S. city. Before the service, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his predecessor, Ray Nagin, shared a brief embrace on the Franklin Avenue neutral ground and spoke to some of those gathered.
"The culture of death has got to stop," said Landrieu, who also spoke at the funeral. "Everybody's got to stand in solidarity."
Afterward, Landrieu stood behind a long white hearse and let loose a pale dove, while family members clambered into a limousine for the trip to Providence Memorial Park cemetery in Metairie for the burial.
Photos of Keira shone on two video screens during the 90-minute service, presided over by Pastor Tyrone Jefferson.
"We are living in a sick, satanic society that is lost and has no clue," Jefferson preached. "Satan is at work. Don't tell me it's praying time. I've had enough of that. We got to be at work."
Pall bearers carted out the casket, topped with stuffed teddy bears. Mourners gathered around, including Ronnie Johnson, 43, who lives in the housing development and said the killing was the result of a "beef" that many residents there knew about.
Since the shooting, parents in the complex have kept their children close to their homes, in fear of the kind of random violence that left Keira dead, he said.
"I hope we can get all the young brothers, big brothers and mentors together. I hope we can get peace," Johnson said, adding that he thinks police caught the right suspects.
Arrested in the shooting were Tyrone "T-Bone" Knockum, 21, who police peg as one of the triggermen, and 23-year-old Narkee Hunter. Police also arrested Terrious "T-Red" Owney, who is considered a "person of interest" in the shooting. A fourth man tied to the case, Charles Louis Anderson III, was fatally shot Monday inside a house in the St. Roch neighborhood.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas has said Anderson's killing is linked to the B.W. Cooper shooting, in which Allen suffered several gunshot wounds, leaving him in critical condition.
Brother Al Mims, an anti-violence activist, stood outside the church with a sign decrying the senseless killing of children.
"The community should be pissed off when this baby is buried. The fire should stay burning," he said. "That baby didn't do anything about anything."
Johnson called the funeral "a beautiful homecoming" for Keira, saying his son often played with the little girl around the public housing complex.
Inside the limousine headed for the cemetery, Keira's grandmother, Renee Holmes, said she hoped simply for justice.
"Everyone, they could see her eyes. They could see her face," Holmes said. "I feel hopeful."
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, December 24th 2011 at 3:24PM
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