BURIED IN A PINK COFFIN

God is too wise to make mistakes and too just to do wrong, the minister said, but Shantel Christina Johnson was lying in a pink coffin in front of him when he said it. Shantel was killed on July 27, one day before her 17th birthday, when the car in which she was riding was ambushed in the 1600 block of Northwest Second Avenue in Overtown. The man who police believe was the intended target of that ambush is recovering; Shantel, shot in the face, died on the scene.

"Lord, we need you now more than ever before, " the minister said. Amen, the crowd said, 300-strong and loud.
Shantel's family, friends and neighbors gathered Saturday for her funeral at St. John Baptist Church on Northwest Third Avenue, filling the pews and the balcony of the small church.
The Rev. Brantley McCollough read from the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." Shantel is asleep, he said, and that is cause not for mourning but for rejoicing.
Shenita Gilbert, Shantel's best friend spoke briefly. "We were always together, " she said. "We were together through thick and thin and I loved Shantel for that. We used to have play names for each other; I was Snow White and she was Cinderella. Now she's Sleeping Beauty."
Her breath was tight over the microphone, but when she could impose control no longer she started to sob and people in the crowd did, too. A man the size of a linebacker covered his face and sank to his knees. The minister spoke more about God and church, flanked by wreaths of carnations and roses and an oversize photograph of Shantel: a white summer dress, earrings and bangs just so, half a smile. "These are trying times, " he said. The family left the church first and the well-wishers followed.
There was milling and confusion until the funeral procession formed, two black limousines and a line of cars with their lights on.