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Friday, August 15, 2025

Relatives recall 'gentle Elijah' as mentally ill man is laid to rest

by

Sascha Wilson
299 days ago
20241020

Days af­ter Eli­jah Noel was shot dead by the po­lice, he was re­mem­bered at his fu­ner­al ser­vice yes­ter­day as a com­pas­sion­ate, qui­et, lov­ing and gen­tle per­son.

Rel­a­tives, friends and neigh­bours who gath­ered at JE Guide Fu­ner­al Home and Cre­ma­to­ri­um in San Fer­nan­do were asked not to dwell on the vi­o­lent man­ner he died but rather on the qual­i­ties that made him spe­cial.

More than a week ago, on Oc­to­ber 11, Eli­jah, 20, was shot by the po­lice in the com­mu­ni­ty af­ter he dam­aged a car while he was hav­ing a men­tal health episode.

De­liv­er­ing the eu­lo­gy yes­ter­day, Kevin Noel, a rel­a­tive, re­called, "Eli­jah was a qui­et force of love and peace in our fam­i­ly. His calm de­meanour and gen­tle spir­it were a con­stant source of com­fort. I will al­ways re­mem­ber his un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to his fam­i­ly, es­pe­cial­ly his par­ents. His in­sis­tence on nev­er see­ing them go with­out and al­ways be­ing will­ing to put the needs of oth­ers above his own­was a tes­ta­ment to his lov­ing na­ture." While the rel­a­tive said Eli­jah was tak­en far too soon, he said his lega­cy of love and com­pas­sion will live on through those who knew and loved him.

"He faced the chal­lenges life brought to him brave­ly. He want­ed to care for those he loved and I be­lieve had he got­ten the chance to grow and ma­ture he would have done so ad­mirably in the face of all chal­lenges he met."

Mean­while, Kerise Pacheco-Mar­shall, one of Eli­jah's neigh­bours, re­called that he and his fam­i­ly moved in­to the Glen­roy De­vel­op­ment com­mu­ni­ty when he was just a tot.

She said, "I re­mem­ber Eli­jah not one day be­ing dis­re­spect­ful. He was al­ways, you know those very gen­tle peo­ple that you don't see an­gry, nev­er re­al­ly dis­turbed, that is who I will de­scribe Eli­jah as."

She said mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty are sup­port­ing his fam­i­ly be­cause they knew the child he was.

Pacheco-Mar­shall said he was al­so help­ful, and the com­mu­ni­ty felt his loss. But she said his mem­o­ry will live in the com­mu­ni­ty.

An­oth­er neigh­bour thanked God for bring­ing Eli­jah and his fam­i­ly in­to her life.

"I pray that God will give them the strength, through this dif­fi­cult time. It is a try­ing time."

Reverand Wayne Matthew said when death comes by "some­one who is sup­posed to pro­tect you. It hurts."

De­spite his men­tal chal­lenges, he said they could take com­fort in know­ing that Eli­jah knew Je­sus Christ.

Eli­jah was in­terred at the Mt Stew­art Pub­lic Ceme­tery.


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