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Funeral for 'Smockie'

Together in grief:Two aunts of Raymond (Smockie) Curtis, Sonia Barker (in blue shirt) and Gloriette Rollins, hug outside Magistrates Court this week.
The victim of an alleged hit and run accident will be laid to rest on Monday.The funeral service for Raymond (Smockie) Curtis will take place at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Somerset at 1 p.m. Family and friends will attend a viewing of his body on Sunday.Mr. Curtis was allegedly struck by a car as he walked home from Woody's Sports Bar, Sandys, in the early hours of Saturday.

The victim of an alleged hit and run accident will be laid to rest on Monday.

The funeral service for Raymond (Smockie) Curtis will take place at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Somerset at 1 p.m. Family and friends will attend a viewing of his body on Sunday.

Mr. Curtis was allegedly struck by a car as he walked home from Woody's Sports Bar, Sandys, in the early hours of Saturday.

Police were called to Malabar Road near Black Bay at 3.48 a.m. where they found the 22-year-old lying unconscious in the street. He was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital but pronounced dead at 4.30 a.m.

Mr. Curtis was just minutes from his home in Albert Row when the incident took place.

On Tuesday, a man appeared at Magistrates' Court charged with manslaughter. Mendell Eugene Outerbridge is accused of the unlawful killing of Raymond Glenn Curtis on Saturday.

His girlfriend Leonae Jameca Simmons, who is eight months pregnant, was accused of being an accessory to manslaughter after the fact.

Outerbridge, 25, of Sandys, was also charged with causing Mr. Curtis's death by driving a car deemed dangerous to the public, of driving a car without a vehicle or driver's licence, and of having no third party insurance.

Simmons, 19, also of Sandys, was charged with receiving, relieving or assisting a person to escape punishment on September 6 in the knowledge of a felony – manslaughter, having been committed.

Both were bailed to next appear at Magistrates' Court on September 23.

Yesterday, Mr. Curtis's aunt Gloriette Rollins, 50, said: "The family are coping – I wouldn't say well, but we are just coping."

His sister Carmilita, 24, said: "We are doing the best we can, with lots of prayer and just having faith in the Lord."

The family have signed a sheet in tribute to Mr. Curtis by the beach at Black Bay, near to where his body was found.

Friends have also emblazoned a sheet at the back fence of Woody's bar, and a tribute page, 'R.I.P. Smuck', has been set up on the Facebook Internet site. The page says: 'Dee Gully lost a tru soldier R.I.P. Smuck. Gone but never forgotten'.

Comments from friends include: "Rest In Peace Smuck... such a humble person... we will miss u", to "I never thought that my boi would go like this... he was so nice and to him self..."

Police are appealing for witnesses and are urging anyone who saw Mr. Curtis on Friday to come forward. They also want to hear of any sightings of a small red car in the area on Friday night and Saturday, and are keen to speak to the driver of a white car said to have been overtaken by the red car in the Black Bay area between 3 a.m. and 3.40 a.m.

Anyone with any information should contact the Serious Crime Unit at 299-4315 or the confidential Crime Stoppers hotline: 1-800-623-8477.