SLAIN Spanish Town gang leader Oliver “Bubba” Smith was sent off in style yesterday as hundreds of mourners crammed the Valley Christian Ministry Church on Windsor Road in the old capital to say good-bye to the man who was to some a community leader and benefactor.

Notably absent, however, was Member of Parliament for Central St Catherine, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, whose name police said was on the registration of the car Smith was driving the night he was shot. No message was read on her behalf.

Smith, who led the notorious “One Order” gang, was cut down in a hail bullets in Kingston last month by men whom the police said were his cronies who were unhappy over the sharing of spoils from a robbery.

Yesterday, his casket was placed in a carriage pulled by a Ford F150 truck to the Dovecot Memorial Park, where there were fireworks and the releasing of doves. The carriage was adorned with his photograph and the One Order logo.

“We nah fire no shot yah so cause the police and the media bait we up,” said a man in the crowd at the Dovecot Memorial Park.

Dozens of police and soldiers were on hand to maintain law and order and ensure that no “gun salutes” were made to honour the gang leader. They maintained a presence at the church and also lined the route leading to the Dovecot Memorial Park.

Smith’s eight year-old daughter, Shanelle, was too grief-stricken to continue reading a lesson at the funeral service and had to be led away from the podium.

Though there were many tears shed, the mood at the funeral service was festive for the most part and when a female member of the Valley Christian Ministry sang the opening lines of the gospel single Lead Me To The Rock, the congregation, made up of mostly women, broke out into a dance and sang along with gusto.

But while the adults danced, Smith’s daughter cried uncontrollably and was comforted by her grandmother Inez May Watson, Smith’s mother.

“Oh God. Lord have mercy,” the child sobbed.

The slain gangster’s father, Hubert Smith, was also in attendance and sat solemnly as the service went on.

The hundreds of people who lined St John’s Road waved green flags and branches as the funeral procession passed their communities as it made its way to Dovecot.

“This is the biggest funeral I ever see from I born,” one woman in the community of Cross Roads told the Observer.