‘A baby is gone:’ Tears, hugs shared at candlelight vigil for 13-year-old Staten Island bus stabbing victim

Nolan Emory the uncle of Syles Ular speaks to the attendees of the vigil at the Park Hill Apartment Complex in Clifton on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Dozens of family, friends and community members gathered in Clifton Monday night for a candlelight vigil celebrating the life of Syles Ular, the 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed aboard an MTA bus in Eltingville Friday afternoon.

Hugs were shared and tears were shed in front 185 Park Hill Ave. as the evening began with a selection of contemporary gospel songs performed by Pastor David Beidel of Urban Hope. A significant police presence mingled among the large, respectful crowd as participants handed out candles and balloons.

While much of the evening was heavy on prayer, several speakers took to the microphone to both offer condolences to Ular’s family and to offer recollections of a young life tragically lost.

“I can’t hug my nephew and tell him I love him. There’s no waking up and calling him. There’s no more making jokes. I haven’t felt anything like this in my life and I don’t wish this on anybody,” said Ular’s uncle, Nolan Emory, the only member of UIar’s family to address the crowd.

“He was a baby who didn’t have a chance to experience life; to get it get wrong or right,’' Emory said. “Go out of your way to make sure you love your loved ones. Love everybody who’s in your life because you might wake up tomorrow and somebody’s gone. I’m so sad that my nephew is a casualty of the nonsense. A baby is gone because we didn’t do better as a community.”

One pastor told the crowd that while he participated in a prayer session with Ular’s mother, she expressed to him that she “forgives” the 14-year-old alleged killer of her son and “loves” him.

“This is about premature death,” the pastor said. “Syles looked like a baby. What comes over us that we can hate and murder each other?” he asked.

The mother of Syles Ular is consoled by Pastor Dimas Salaberrios during a vigil held at the Park Hill Apartment Complex in Clifton on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)

State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore) said she was picking up her own children from the school bus when she was notified of Friday’s fatal incident.

“This gives me a real renewed sense of urgency that I will bring to Albany for young people,” Scarcella-Spanton said. “Syles is the second child this year from this area who was brutally killed. It’s not acceptable. It’s not OK. And we have more to do.”

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Earlier in the evening, community activist and mentor “Uncle K,” Woods of the K. Woods Foundation, showed the Advance/SILive.com photos of Ular participating in a youth basketball tournament that Woods had organized this past summer.

Lamenting a lack of after-school programs in many of the area public schools, Woods said: “This is a sad moment for me. We really have to stick together and do better. It’s up to us to start making things better. The only things these kids know are the streets right now, and these streets aren’t it.”

As the vigil came to a close, led by Ular’s mother, many took to a nearby Park Hill park to release balloons into the air in Ular’s memory.