Springfield Mourns Pierre Damas Bel as Haitian Leaders Demand Answers

Hours before he died, Pierre Damas Bel called his father on a video call and said he was not okay mentally. His family says the 20-year-old Wright State University student had been taunted by classmates over the ankle monitor the government forced him to wear.

He took his own life Monday. His father said the young man could no longer bear the stigma of wearing the device on his foot.

Springfield is now mourning him, and Haitian leaders are demanding answers. His father and community leaders were scheduled to address the public at 3pm on September 1 at Central Christian Church on Villa Road.

The family planned to discuss why he took his own life and who is to blame. The event was also set to be carried on a livestream for those who could not attend.

A Father’s Final Phone Call

In a written statement, Pierre Ronal Bel described the call with his son that night. The young man said the bullying was hurting him mentally, and his father told him to come home so they could talk.

Police came to the family’s door hours later to report that his son had died. “The government treated my son like an animal,” his father said.

The statement was released in the father’s own handwriting and later transcribed. In it, he described a son who was struggling in his first days away at school.

From Honor Student to Shackles

Pierre graduated from Springfield High School as an honors student and was a member of J-ROTC. He planned to study neuroscience at Wright State and hoped to attend medical school.

Months before classes started, he posted on social media that he was proud of the journey from Haiti to the United States. He wrote that he was ready for the next chapter at Wright State.

That excitement did not survive his first week on campus. The administration took his legal status and then forced him to wear the ankle monitor, and his family says the device drew taunts from other students.

A Community Speaks Out

Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance called the death one of the most tragic outcomes of the administration’s treatment of Haitians. She said he had told his father he could no longer bear the stigma of the device.

Jozef said the administration is fully responsible for his death. She called its attacks on the Haitian community cruel and inhumane.

Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said she looked through his account after hearing the news. She saw a young man proud of what he had built, with commenters calling him ‘King’.

Tramonte said he deserved to be treated like a college student and nothing more. She said no one deserves to be shackled or threatened with deportation to a country that is not safe.

 

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Leaders Press Officials to Act

Tramonte said lawyers, people of faith and community members are the only ones standing up for Haitian families in Springfield. She said everyone else has abandoned the community.

She named Governor DeWine, Senators Moreno and Husted, Mayor Rue, Chief Elliot and Sheriff Clark. Her question to them was direct: ‘When are you going to show up and do something?’

Tramonte asked whether officials will keep letting ICE shackle the community and send people to a country where they will be killed. She said the alternative is to say enough is enough.

In her statement, Tramonte said the Haitian families living in Springfield are part of the community. She wrote that they are Ohioans and they do not deserve to die.