‘Oh Jesus!’: Grief overwhelms mourners at funeral of 23-year-old prison officer

Wails turned into screams. Cries of “Oh Jesus!” echoed through the New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church as the casket of 23-year-old Prison Officer Ashantio Johnson was wheeled slowly down the aisle.

It was a moment that broke the church.

Family members collapsed into grief, some trembling, they had to be held and fanned. Others waved, unable to contain the shock of saying goodbye to Johnson, whose life was cut short.

Click here to watch the mourners’ reaction at Ashantio Johnson’s funeral.

Some mourners called it “the saddest funeral ever.”

Mario Curry said the service ranked among the most heartbreaking he had ever attended. “This service is included in the saddest services in law enforcement for me.”

Bunnie Sturrup, another mourner, repeated, “This is the saddest funeral.”

Johnson, originally from Lower Bogue, Eleuthera, had only recently joined the Bahamas Department of Corrections, following in the footsteps of his sister, Corrections Sergeant Clendina Johnson-Smith.

She remembered him as “humorous,” and “the life of the party,” a young man whose presence always filled a room.

But his future was cut short when he was stabbed during a pub brawl that also injured two of his colleagues.

At the graveside, grief took on a deeper and more emotionally crushing sound.

One witness described the moment Johnson’s mother said her final goodbyes. “Just to hear that mother quote that old familiar song had me snotty right up.  “It was the most emotional thing I’ve heard. Can a mother tender care cease towards the child she bore?”

The Bahamas Department of Corrections said the atmosphere surrounding Johnson’s death and funeral was “heavy with sorrow,” as colleagues struggled to process the loss of someone they described as “cherished by those who knew him.”

They remembered him for his courage, his commitment to duty, and the promise of a career that had barely begun.

Johnson was laid to rest at Lakeview Memorial Gardens.

Featured Images: Bahamas Department of Corrections