Barway Collins laid to rest as nearly 2,000 gather for funeral

The night before 10-year-old Barway Collins' funeral, his Liberian birth mother and his stepmother met privately. It was the latest attempt to begin a healing process necessitated by the April 11 discovery of Barway's body and his father's arrest in connection with the death.

"I think it was something that was needed," said Harding Smith, the Collins family's pastor.

Louise Karluah, Barway's mother, and stepmother Yamah Collins sat next to each other Saturday inside Shiloh Temple International Ministries in north Minneapolis where an estimated 2,000 people gathered for the boy's funeral. Most wore white, as Karluah had requested, saying that it represents purity and would honor her son's memory.

Early in the three-hour service, Barway's casket was briefly opened for a family-only viewing. A large portrait stood near his white casket, upon which rested a heaping bouquet of flowers. Later, a procession continued to Crystal's Glenhaven Memorial Cemetery to bury Barway in a plot donated by a resident.

Minneapolis police and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies were part of a steady security presence as community divisions stoked concerns.

"Everyone has abandoned this family," Smith said, referring to Yamah Collins and her two young children. Barway's father, Pierre Collins, is in jail on $2 million bond, charged with second-degree murder in Barway's death.

But Saturday passed peacefully, with more than a dozen speeches voicing a common theme: that Barway had been the force that brought such a large group together. Kamaty Diahn, a board member at the Organization for Liberians in Minnesota, was not surprised by the turnout.

Music and dance stirred the crowd. Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek thanked those who kept up search efforts.

"You never gave up hope. You never gave up the search for the truth," he said.

Barway's funeral was postponed to Saturday so Karluah could travel from Liberia to attend. She arrived in Minneapolis on Wednesday and thanked supporters at a Thursday news conference during which she declined to say anything about the investigation into Barway's death.

Smith said he visited Pierre Collins last week. Collins has lost weight from not eating and has maintained his innocence, he said. A judge last month denied Collins' request to see his son's body before Saturday.

Midway through Saturday's service, some shrieked as a woman read a letter written by her daughter, one of Barway's classmates: "I'm so sorry you died. If I could, I would bring you back."