Thousands of People to Attend Funeral of Boys Who Died the Night of Ely Riots

Thousands of people will fill the streets of Ely on Thursday 6th July for the funeral of Kyrees Sullivan and Harvey Evans who died in May following an alleged police chase.

The deaths of the boys aged 16 and 15 were soon followed by a riot and aggravated behaviour towards the police into that evening of the 22nd May.

While the independent investigation of the events is still ongoing, the local council rather than law enforcement will be in charge of closing the roads around the Church of the Resurrection for the 1pm joint service for the two young best friends.

Kyrees and Harvey have been close since nursery and the families felt it right that they also be buried together in the same grave.

The boys’ friendship group have paid tribute to the pair by organising two limousines, four hearses and eight Rolls Royce cars along with 200-400 motorbikes for the procession.

Local schools will be closing on the afternoon of the funeral due to the magnitude of people and traffic on the roads.

The Rev’d Canon Jan Gould said, “It’s important for the family especially, but actually for the whole community have some closure now and to begin to move on. My hope is that moving on from this now the community can begin to rebuild. And hopefully the families will find some peace from the service.”

On 23rd May, the day after the deaths and riots, the Church of the Resurrection remained open all day as a place of calm and comfort to support the community during a time of great unrest. Since then, the church has continued to be a welcoming space for people to come and light a candle and talk about Kyrees and Harvey.

During the service a moment of silence will be held and Canon Jan will be preaching about the Gospel passage of Jesus stilling in the storm. She said, “I'm going to be talking about how grief can sometimes feel like a storm that's overwhelming and we don't know how to feel. We can have all kinds of feelings that we can't manage and I'm going to be encouraging them to reach out for that peace that Jesus brought when he stilled the storm and that he longs to still the storms of our lives.”