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A SPECIAL SECTION: Haiti, Since the January 12, 2010 Fierce Earthquake
Professor Yves A. Isidor conveys his thoughts or opinion to the U.S. news media (partial)
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Posted Saturday, January 7, 2012

Funeral held for Herve Gilles who was fatally shot by Spring Valley police

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Herve Gilles' mother, Madeleine Clermont of Haiti, far right, grieves at her son's funeral at the French Speaking Baptist Church in Spring Valley on Dec. 31, 2011. Gilles' step-sister Marie Romain-Elias of Mount Vernon, center, and her husband Beauceneque Elias sit nearby. The service was preceded by a march in procession from the site of his fatal shooting by police Dec. 14 to the church. / Xavier Mascareñas/The Journal News   
videoFuneral of police shooting victim, Herve Gilles

SPRING VALLEY — The funeral for Herve Gilles, the man shot dead by village police this month, was both an emotional tribute and a call for justice.

Close to 500 people attended the two-hour service Saturday morning at the French Speaking Baptist Church in Spring Valley, only a few blocks from where his life ended suddenly and tragically at the age of 48.

Gilles died early on the morning of Dec. 14 after Spring Valley police responded to a report of an emotionally disturbed man creating a disturbance at a downtown bar. An officer encountered Gilles soon after in a parking lot near the train station. The officer, who has not been publicly identified, and Gilles fought, with Gilles apparently grabbing the officer’s nightstick.

The officer shot Gilles twice, once in the head and once in the torso. Gilles died at the scene.

An initial investigation found that the shooting was justified because the officer acted in self-defense, and a grand jury will hear the facts of the case later next month after toxicology test results become available.

While the case was repeatedly mentioned at the funeral, the specifics were not discussed nor the Spring Valley police mentioned. Rather, the service, which was conducted in English and Creole, was a celebration of Gilles, described as warm, caring and generous.

About a dozen members of his family sat in two front rows of the church, including his mother who was able to secure a visa so could travel from Haiti. They were a few feet from his closed coffin, which was flanked by pink and red roses and a framed portrait.

Some in attendance appeared shocked to learn that Gilles’ father had died only a few weeks earlier. Gasps could be heard.

Gilles’ half-brother, Valner Romain, said Gilles was shaken by the news.

“Now I’m going to take my life seriously,” the Mount Vernon resident recalled Gilles saying in regards to finding a good woman, landing a job and devising a way to bring his mother to the United States.

“I don’t know how this happened,” said Romain, whose words were translated. “Maybe it’s the will of God. And I know that God will make us reach justice.”

Gilles, who moved from Pestel, Haiti, to Spring Valley in 1984 when he was 19 years old, was known for getting loud and out of control when off his medication or drunk. Several speakers at his funeral referred to his limitations and challenges, but they also spoke of his kindness: opening doors for others, his devout faith and offering prayers for others. They never knew him to be violent, they said.

Marie Irma Romain-Elias, Gilles’ stepsister, said he always brought something for everyone when he came to visit her home in Mount Vernon: a pair of stockings for her, a hat for her father and sneakers for her son. Gilles used to work at Macy’s in White Plains and a Hilton hotel in New Jersey during the 1980s, but had become disabled and had been unable to work since 1987, she said.

“In fact, the last time he came, one week before his death, he had insisted he will bring me a nice pairs of shoes the next time he comes,” a sobbing Romain-Elias said. “Unfortunately, he never made that next time because of Dec. 14, 2011, he was shot to death.”

Before the funeral, approximately 100 people marched from the site where Gilles died to the church, shutting down a portion of Main Street for about half an hour.

Sanford Rubenstein, the lawyer for the Gilles’ family and one of the march’s leaders, received rousing applause when he said Gilles “did not deserve to die the way he did.”

“Those who have special challenges should and must be protected by society, not harmed,” Rubenstein said.

Gilles was buried at Brick Church Cemetery in New Hempstead.


Published Saturday, December 31, 2011 by lohud.com.

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