Councilman's family says 'see you later,' not goodbye

Patrice Howze, son of City Councilman Sala Udin, was buried Friday at a gently rolling cemetery in O'Hara.

The Greenwood Cemetery -- a quiet place where the sobs of mourners carried across the low hills -- contrasted vividly with Howze's violent death this week in the streets of Pittsburgh.

Howze, 29, was gunned down early Sunday as he drove a borrowed gray Monte Carlo on Centre Avenue in the Hill District. Homicide detectives, who believe Howze might have been involved in an alleged kidnapping and pistol-whipping of a Hill District tavern owner last month, are investigating whether Howze's slaying was retaliatory.

"Our love for Patrice is unconditional love," Salim Howze, an older brother, said during a funeral service earlier yesterday at the Macedonia Baptist Church in the Hill District.

Several hundred mourners packed into the Bedford Avenue church, many streaming past an open casket where Patrice Howze's body lay dressed in a brown suit. Udin, his face streaked with tears, sat near his son's coffin.

The crowd included Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Pittsburgh City Council President Gene Ricciardi and other city and county officials who have worked with Udin during his 10 years on City Council.

The Rev. Jason A. Barr Jr., senior pastor at the church, told mourners people should draw a lesson from Howze's death.

"How is it that a God who knows all and has all power and is all-loving allows so many young African-American men to die an early death -- to die a death of violence even before the prime of their lives• One of the things we need to understand is that God gives us all choices."

"God is trying to bring something good even out of something bad," Barr said. "Could it be that God is taking some of us who are young men in this culture and helping us in not making another bad decision?"

Salim Howze and his twin, Bomani, spoke during the service about happy times they had with their younger brother when they were children.

"We had a lot of good times," Bomani Howze said. "The ice cream truck. Sugar cookies from Shop 'n Save. He was the twins' little brother. My closest friend and confidant."

"We were one -- the three of us," he said.

Salim Howze described Patrice as softspoken and "a man of few words."

"But when he talked, he had something to say," he said.

"In my family, we don't say goodbye. We say, 'See you later,'" Salim Howze said. "See you later, 'Trice."