10.21.2022 David Almond Grove Dedication Ceremony

we certainly could not have asked for a more beautiful day Senator judge representative

oh do you have the list thank you

need my glasses good morning everyone on this gorgeous day we have a brief ceremony and we I'm grateful for the turnout today and certainly for the media to cover this event not for me not for any of us here except for David and his memory thank you everyone for coming and joining us for this dedication ceremony naming this Grove behind me the David Almond Grove to honor David's brief life

we were all deeply affected by David's horrific death but today we honor his memory vowed to commit to providing better safeguards and protective services for all children and create a permanent reminder that this should never happen again but before I begin I would like to First note a few key members in the audience who've joined us today first mayor Paul Coogan may I welcome thank you

state representative Paul Schmidt my good colleague I know from the school department we have a Claudia Costa and Cindy Kudo joining us we have Bristol County Juvenile Court chief justice Jay Spinelli we have our city councilor Linda Pereira here school committee person Mimi laravee we have district attorney Tom Quinn we have Mikey Almeida who I'll reference in a minute and my colleague and co-sponsor of this

legislation to name the Grove Senator Michael rodericks invited but not able to join us today we're the local area DCF director and the office of the child advocate director Maria massagers that both extended their regrets for not being able to join us I'd also like to thank Jim Lopes and Jim Paul and Chris Spillane from Heritage State Park and DCR for the help in organizing this event for us along with

my staff Tyler and Tyler I'd also like to make special thanks and acknowledgment to Mikey Almeida Mikey wave your hand there for coming to me uh two years ago almost and inspiring me to do something special here on our Waterfront for David's memory thank you Mikey your thoughtfulness compassion and your commitment to honoring David is is wonderful years ago today two years ago today

David's life was taken by people who were supposed to love and care for him and his brothers they lived in filth he and his brother were found emaciated and while his brother survived his suffering and condition was grave and he endured a lengthy physical healing process we are all here because David's death well I'll say murder and the horrific treatment of his triplet brother as well has impacted us all

we also make no excuses for the fact that all systems failed him his case continues to shape the way that children under DCF supervision in the courts and in the school districts are being cared for and has resulted in numerous changes recommended after a lengthy and thorough investigation by the office of the child advocate which are being implemented and have been ongoing we remain focused

on following these improvements so that all children under the supervision of the state are safe well cared for and hopefully feel loved David's memory lives on as we have learned he was a capable caring sweet young man and brother and there he is his death inspires us all to do better and be better Advocates to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again one year ago we planted a tree here in honor

today we dedicate the entire Grove to David small gestures yes but it is my hope when people walk by see the sign over there and the one we're going to unveil unveil over here they ask themselves who was David Almond and when they Google his story they will be shocked and Disturbed but it will keep him in the hearts and minds and prayers of those people and many others rest in peace David your

memory will live on at this time I'd like to acknowledge and thank my partner in filing this legislation a wonderful colleague a very very uh busy guy on Beacon Hill and a very compassionate and caring person my colleague Senator Michael rodericks senator

everyone thank you representative for not only bringing us all together today but for taking the lead in sponsoring this legislation it's hard for me to even think about David Allman without getting emotional to think of a beautiful vibrant young man what he went through am I doing something what he went through uh in the final days it's it's heartbreaking and maybe this is that better is that better

okay thank you thank you no you went that's me electric personality right but um how appropriate it is that we dedicate this Grove here at Heritage State Park because while David Almond was a tragedy that we will forever live with here in Fall River it's a tragedy uh that is felt throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as the trees in this Grove grow and live a full life it will remind

us that David never had an opportunity to live his full life in his representative Fiola said as people ask who is David David Almond and they Google his name and they learn his story they will uh they will know why we chose this place to dedicate in his memory so thank you all Mikey thank you very much for bringing this idea forward it was it was great and Justice for David thank you all thank you

um I was very moved like every one of you on when we learned about the murder of David and the devastation that happened in that apartment and in his life and came to a small uh remembrance here at Heritage State Park organized by a resident of Fall River who did not know David just like none of us knew David um and after that he said we have to do something I hear this was a favorite

spot of David's the waterfront so um Mikey Almeida please come up and share your thoughts and I appreciate and I'm grateful for you to bring this idea forward Mikey I'll meet him thank you everyone thank you for everybody everybody that's come today and the hard work that you and your team and colleagues have done to make this happen good morning I want to say that what a beautiful nice day for this

special dedication my name is Michael Alameda many of you may know me as Mikey spiky and are asking did I know David the answer is I didn't know him personally but I have been working with children with disabilities since I was 20 and this tragedy hit me very hard because I had a brother with disabilities they need someone to advocate for them especially children I live just two minutes away

from David So this hit me very hard I just couldn't sit back and do nothing when I heard about the story foreign I didn't know you but it feels like I've known you your entire life we don't have the answers why the Lord called you home so young we wish it was just a dream we are all wishing you would walk back into our lives but on Wednesday October 21st 2020 the Lord called you home as

one of his beautiful young Angels your love and life lives on inside all of us and we will hold on tight it's not my place to question why only God knows why God needed another Angel and he saw you were in pain and suffering so he called you home David from what I've learned about you you were the sweetest kid you could ever meet you're always wanted to make friends everywhere you went and had a

great personality you had a beautiful smile and a laugh and a smile that would light up the room you were the sweetest little boy anybody could ask for from what I have gathered David loved the water he loves swimming and David loved hockey and was interested in soccer too he enjoyed being active in school plays David loved to paint and his favorite color was red David was also a musician he loved

playing the guitar and was really good at it he loved listening to music and loved superheroes his favorite was Batman David loved video games especially Mario and Street Fighter from what I have learned about David David was just a bundle of joy David I leave you with this with a beautiful tree planted in your memory and a bench overlooking the beautiful scenery and boats in the water

you will love this I hope the Angels know what they have gained please watch over your brothers Michael Joshua and Grayson and help guide them to life they're going to need you David your mom also loves you too and please watch over her and she's devastated about this incident please watch over them and US David wrestling Everlasting peace little man David this will be prevented from

happening to any other child because of you I want to personally thank state representative Carol Fiola Senator Michael Rodriguez and their colleagues for passing this bill for permanently making this David David almonds Grove there are measures and standards in the Commonwealth that has taken though no other child will be hurt or killed ever again we need to make sure Justice is served

in the court system and I will be there every step of the way to make sure that happens David as I leave you I hope you are looking over down at this beautiful Park and this beautiful day because this is for you this isn't goodbye but we'll meet we'll meet soon thank you and thank everybody I I truly can't thank you guys enough thank you so much

at this time there are a few individuals I'd like to to ask to come up if they care to say a few words and I'm going to start with the mayor of the city of Fall River Nepal Kruger

um I will be very brief I've been mayor for about three years now and without a doubt this was the saddest day of my time in office this case to this day after you read the report it haunts me it haunts a city and it haunts the entire State probably the country it was a complete and utter tragedy and wasted life of a young man and just thinking about it now makes me start to get

moved he is but now I've urged him to come up so uh sorry to put you on the spot judge I know this is a very important thing yeah no um just to uh touch upon what the mayor has said I've actually been the judge here for 16 years and this is the saddest event that I've experienced in the time that I have been a judge here I do want people to understand this that

after David ahmed's death uh everybody in our court system understood the gravity of this we understood what we needed to do better we have had significant changes that have been implemented since David's death and from what we have learned uh you know we have this Grove and we have the tree that was planted in his memory there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of David Almond there isn't a day

a child that is performing that I don't think of the lessons that I have learned from this case and I understand what we can do better you know I do hope that there will never be another child that will be neglected or that will we will miss those signs that are obvious we're doing everything that we can in the court system and it is done in memory of David you know I know

that uh there are some items that people can take to remember uh David it's not something that you know we remember every day the lessons that we've learned from this young child's life a little bit about him that I knew he was known as the mayor in school he was the mayor because life revolved around him he was the guy that organized everything in school he was known for his kindness you

know he was a caring individual took care of his other two brothers so he had us in the 14 years far too short of a life but he did have a significant impact and he will have an impact on our court system in the way that we work together forever I mean the one thing that's come from this that's really important is we have the Department of Children and Families we have the schools we have the

probation service we have the court system and we now work much better together we share information better we're looking out for those signs that would indicate there's another problem similar to this so you know for those things I thank David Almond right thank you thank you judge I'd like to offer our district attorney Tom Quinn he's saying he's here to watch and so I appreciate that and you'll

always have a present D.A and I know um your heart is here today uh in this event um we have the school department represented today I don't know I know superintendent Ponce was going to be here today but I'd like to offer someone from the school department the school committee woman no larvy ladies would you Claudia or Cindy did us here okay I just wanted to make sure um let me just take another look lastly not

lastly but um this these kind of things don't happen by themselves as I said I filed in the house and my colleague in the Senate uh sponsored this legislation and you think a bill like this would be simple and uh legislation doesn't happen too too quickly but we were able to be here today and I'd like to offer my good colleague who supported this effort state representative Paul Schmidt to come forward Paul

are you sure okay thank you um so lastly before we stand next to the unveiled already uh beautiful uh sign that will get people Googling two things I want to say is we've talked about the things we have learned is a report you can Google it you can look it up the office of the child's Advocate recommendations on the death of David Almond 26 recommendations that are being implemented

but the one thing I would say if I could speak to all the residents throughout the Commonwealth would be pay attention if it doesn't feel right in your stomach if something you think is happening next door if you think a child is in danger please call call the office of the child advocate call the police call someone to share your concerns and from what we have learned call DCF

it will be followed up and it may be nothing but you may save a life because not every child ends up in the courts or in DCF before they're in trouble and so if you are a neighbor or a friend pay attention these vulnerable beautiful children are depending on us Before We Gather at the sign I just want to say I have a in Fall River an autistic group called River Rocks and they're associated with

a greater Fall River Association um they put together for me a little bag with a special rock today to remember David and I don't have one for every single person here today there's a beautiful note that they wrote envisioning it would be David that wrote this note and I'm going to read it to you because they went out of their way to I didn't ask for the note but it's

it's beautiful so I want to share it with you all and I'm going to make sure that certainly the judge and the D.A and the senator and the school department and the even you know that you all have a rock and then Mikey as well but um this is what they wrote and I thought this was very beautiful and I want to share it and it's to whoever opens the bag the recipient of this rock

thank you for loving me enough to keep my memory alive and sharing my story thank you for coming together to make sure my story made a difference thank you for the David Almond Grove where everyone can come and remember me and smile knowing I'm watching over them your forever angel so I think that was beautiful I think that's a good summary for this event and unless someone else would like to share

something Linda Pereira state city councilor I know what a servant you are and um thank you so with that I want to thank you all for coming and I'm going to ask everyone who participated in the program uh judge senator um mayor T.A if you'd like to come forward and Mikey please let's stand next to the sign we'll pretend we'll unveil it but we'll take a photo with it for your memories and um David

we'll keep an eye on everything he took it down uh I want to thank the media also for coming um I know this case was Sensational you followed it from the beginning um but again hopefully you'll take away the messages uh for people to pay attention and to know we're working on it as well thank you all for coming