13-year-old laid to rest with fireman’s honors
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Firemen from the Mount Pleasant fire department pay their respects at James R. Gustafson’s funeral on Thursday. Gustafson, who aspired to be a junior firefighter, was killed Sunday night when a friend was playing with a gun and it went off, fatally shooting the teen.
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J. R. Gustafson was killed in an accidental shooting on Sunday.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Mark Gustafson cries at his son’s casket after the 13-year-old boy, James “J.R.” Gustafson, was killed Sunday night when a friend playing with a gun accidentally fired it, fatally shooting J.R.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
13-year-old James R. Gustafson’s coffin is loaded into a hearse as the fire trucks he was poised to ride in as a junior fireman with his father and brother idle in the background to follow him to the cemetery.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
The vault for 13-year-old James Gustafson’s casket is decorated in the colors of the Denver Broncos, who won the Super Bowl this year. Gustafson was killed Sunday night when a friend was playing with a gun and it went off, fatally shooting the teen.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Mourners collect themselves for a moment before going into James R. Gustafson’s funeral at Brooks Funeral Home in Mount Pleasant on Thursday. Gustafson, 13, was killed Sunday night when a friend was playing with a gun and it went off, fatally shooting the teen.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Classmates of James R. Gustafson cry after leaving his funeral on Thursday afternoon in Mount Pleasant. Gustafson, 13, was killed Sunday night when a friend was playing with a gun and it went off, fatally shooting him.
A 13-year-old killed in an accidental shooting was laid to rest with the honors he would have been awarded if he had more time to live out his dreams.
Aspiring firefighter James “J.R.” Gustafson was killed Sunday when a gun his friend was holding discharged.
J.R. was planning to join the Mount Pleasant Borough Volunteer Fire Dept. when he turned 14, the age at which the department allows junior firefighters to join and begin training.
“He would have turned 14 in June,” said fire Chief and Mayor Gerald Lucia. “You could see he was very eager. We had big plans for him.”
The teen’s father, Mark Gustafson is a firefighter with the department, and his brother, 16-year-old Mark Gustafson Jr., is a junior firefighter. J.R. had two younger brothers, ages 7 and 10.
Lucia said J.R. would often come to the station and look over the trucks and try on his older brother’s gear.
Firetrucks and other local emergency personnel led the procession for the teen. A group of firefighters, dressed in burgundy coats, filed into the Brooks Funeral Home.
Before them, young teens fidgeted with buttons, adjusted ties and checked the makeup their tears had left behind.
Young children with confused faces crossed, uncrossed and recrossed their ankles.
The funeral parlor was overflowing with friends, loved ones and community members supporting the family.
Rev. Richard Kosiko read from the book of Lamentations.
“My soul is deprived of peace,” he said. “My future is lost.”
He said although it is not possible to make sense of the tragedy, it is important to hold on to memories. He said not to think about the things the boy will never do, but of the full life he lived.
J.R. loved to hunt, fish and play sports. He was known for riding his bike through the town, regardless of the weather. The 13-year-old was full of energy and enthusiasm, especially when it came to his dreams of becoming a firefighter.
His vault was painted for his favorite football team, the Denver Broncos, and was adorned with a firefighter’s emblem.
The young children, unfamiliar with mortality, crumbled with head in hands at the first words of J.R.’s funeral song, “If I Die Young,” by The Band Perry.
Kosiko read the words a friend of the teen wrote for him Monday. He wrote that everyone was crying when he went to school that day at Mount Pleasant Area Junior-Senior High School. J.R attended seventh grade there. The friend wrote about his shock at losing J.R. so quickly “all because of some mistake.”
“To my bro, J.R. Love you man,” he began. “I stayed strong for you and everyone around me. You are my bro, bro.”
Five teens fell into each other after the service, each simultaneously collapsing and supporting the others.
Lucia was nearby with J.R.’s father at the fire hall for a meeting when the boy was killed. He said he heard an ambulance, and sent Gustafson to look out and see where it was stopped. The father reported back, not knowing his son was involved. Neither J.R. nor the teen who allegedly shot him, 14-year-old John Burnsworth, lived at the house. Burnsworth was charged with homicide and possession of a firearm by a minor in the shooting. Police are continuing their investigation.
Lucia soon went onto the scene and learned the incident was fatal. Then, he was told, the victim was “Mark Gustafson’s son.”
“Do you ever have your heart just drop to your stomach?” he asked.
He said he told Gustafson himself that the victim was his son.
After consoling him, he took Gustafson to his mother’s house, where his wife and other family members were gathered and told them the tragic news.
“I don’t want to see that anymore. Ooh,” he groaned. “That was hard.”
He said as a fire chief, he has informed families of a loss many times.
“It was never nothing like this,” he bit his lip and looked out. “It’s a shame.”
But he was moved to see the community come together in light of the tragedy. He said it was “breathtaking” to see the way the community supported the family. He said even those with little money sent cards and donations.
“I couldn’t stand any taller here,” he said.
He comforted family and friends at the funeral home, and offered words about J.R.’s lasting tribute with the fire department.
“Whenever you guys hear the fire whistle blow, J.R. will not be on the truck with us, but he’ll be out there watching out for the family, and for us, too, because we can be a little clumsy,” Lucia said. “I always picture angels up there with wings. This angel will be up there, and he’ll have a hard hat on, and it will be black. And then he’ll have his bunker on,” he paused to acknowledge the Broncos fan. “It’ll be black and gold. You’ll just have to live with that.”