Some 200 mourners gathered at a Staten Island church Thursday to pay their final respects to Syles Ular, the 13-year-old “adventurous spirit” whose life was allegedly cut short by a knife-wielding teen during a scuffle on a city bus earlier this month.
Among them was the young victim’s grieving mother, Nakeia Emory – who found it in her heart to forgive her son’s killer.
“I want everyone to know, she looked and said, ‘Tell that boy that I love him and I forgive him,’ Pastor David Beidel told mourners at the International Christian Center of Emory.
“I was in awe,” Beidel said. “In that moment, she was worried about two lives being lost.”
Family friend Gretchen Jefferson recalled the youngster as “an adventurous spirit” and a “remarkable young soul.”
Syles, a student at Elias Bernstein IS 7, was stabbed to death by another teenager during a dispute aboard an MTA bus on the afternoon of Oct. 6, police said.
Syles and his alleged killer, another 13-year-old student at the school, were on the S78 bus at Hyland Boulevard and Littlefield Avenue in Eltingville around 2:20 p.m. when they got into a fight, cops said.
Syles was stabbed in the chest multiple times and stumbled up to the bus driver before collapsing.
His young assailant fled, but was nabbed nearby after an off-duty cop trailed him and notified police.
“The day it happened I was at basketball practice,” Faith Green, Syles’ cousin, told The Post. “I didn’t think it was real. I broke down. He was so young.”
Syles’ body lay in an open casket during his funeral service, holding a small bouquet of red roses as the sun streamed in over arrangements of roses and chrysanthemums across the podium.
“He was a good kid – a good nonviolent kid,” his cousin, Tyrole Watkins, said. “He just didn’t deserve this. We’re trying to be patient and not be angry.”
Vincent Capers, Syles’ uncle, did not share Emory’s desire to forgive, describing the teen charged with killing his nephew, as “a bad kid doing what he does best – bad stuff.”
The accused killer, who has not been identified because he is a minor, was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges.
The Post revealed last week that an FDNY ambulance failed to get to Ular in time to treat his wounds because paramedics were swamped – arriving at the scene two minutes after cops had already rushed the teen to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Syles was remembered as a curious youngster who loved basketball and animals and a boy who “embraced every opportunity to make the most of his time here,” according to his obituary.
Speaking to mourners at the funeral, Archbishop Eric Figueroa urged them to use the tragic incident as “a teachable moment,” and to shun vengeance.
“It’s important to acknowledge that grief is unique and everybody copes in their own individual way,” he said.
“Vengeance only further compounds the burden associated with grief.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore