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As soon as he saw the message, he said he knew: “Oh, no! This isn’t normal. Something is not right.” Miles Dooley was on the Ohio State campus, where he’s a freshman majoring in biomedical engineering, when his mom, Lisa Pankratz, a second grade teacher back home in Springfield sent him a text Monday night that read: “Do you have a second to call?” As he sat in his dorm room Wednesday, Sept., 2, he remembered his reaction: “I got a pit in my stomach. I knew this was something bad.” It was. In the words of Gov. Mike DeWine, this was “a horrible, horrible tragedy.” Dooley’s friend, Pierre Damas Bel — his fast and fearless teammate and fellow co-captain with the Springfield High soccer team last season; the thriving student who joined him in the National Honor Society; the guy he watched work hard in his classes, care for his two younger siblings during summer practices while his parents worked; hold a 30-hour a week job at Texas Roadhouse while going to school; a student who was a lieutenant in Springfield High’s Marine Corps Junior ROTC program; a young man with the big future who had been headed to Wittenberg University on a scholarship and would play soccer — was dead. “What my mom told me was hard to imagine,” Dooley said. “But then the way he died, that’s been almost too much to handle. It’s been a rough few days.” Dooley remembered Bel, who had come to the United States legally from the violence and civil discord in Haiti in the spring of 2024 to join the rest of his family in Springfield and forge a better life, as someone who embraced life to the fullest: “He did more in his one year (a Springfield High) than most people do in four years of high school. “Things for a lot of the Haitian students were a lot harder than for everybody else. “He was extremely proud of the life he was living and the things he had done. “He had been given a bad hand of cards, but he definitely did the most with them. He worked hard in class and on the soccer field. Even though he wasn’t the biggest guy, he was our fastest player and he wasn’t afraid of anything.” That hard work paid dividends at his graduation in May when he received multiple scholarships and accepted an offer to Wittenberg to play college soccer. But before the Tigers preseason drills began, ICE called him to its office when Haitians’ Temporary Protected Status was voided by the Trump administration and a relentless roundup of Haitians in Springfield was beginning. Bel, whose immigration proceedings were continuing as he sought asylum, became possibly the youngest Haitian in Springfield fitted with a bulky ankle monitor as part of ICE’s “alternate detention program.” That meant he would be unable to play college soccer and fulfill his scholarship. Several teachers and mentors wrote the immigration judge hearing his case and asked for the ankle monitor to be removed. So did the manager of the Texas Roadhouse where he worked. And in another letter he penned last year recommending Pierre for a Rotary Club scholarship, he said: “Pierre understands the value of hard work and opportunity. He is truly a living breathing example of service above self.” Sentiments like that didn’t sway the immigration judge or ICE officials whose offices Bel visited twice to plead that his ankle monitor be taken off. With his Wittenberg dream crushed, he transferred to Wright State and planned to study neuroscience and physiology. He had thoughts of becoming a doctor. But as he told his father, the teasing and bullying he experienced helped fuel his mental anguish. On Sunday, Aug. 30, he posted several photos of his academic and athletic achievements and those letters of support on his Instagram account. In a caption that accompanied them, he wrote: “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my ankle…carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience.” On Tuesday Sept. 1, his old team, the Wittenberg Tigers, was to play its season opener against Franciscan. In between — on this past Monday morning, Aug. 31 — he made a brief phone call to his dad in Springfield. He was despondent. His father begged him to come home so they could sit and talk. Instead, he parked his 2006 Toyota along west bound Interstate 70, near exit 66, got out of his car and stepped in front of Kenworth tractor trailer rig. He was dead at the scene. He was just 20. The “horrible, horrible tragedy” has devastated Bel’s family and his friends Dooley feels much of that: “Pierre did so much. He was always smiling and happy and helping others. “He was so full of life.” Attacking life The Springfield High team, which is usually outmanned by the GWOC soccer heavyweights like Beavercreek and Centerville, drew praise a year ago for its spirited play and the way it had molded a team of locally-raised players and Haitian students who were part of the influx of 10,000 Haitians who came to Springfield seeking a better life. As DeWine and Springfield mayor Rob Rue noted, the Haitians had brought a vibrancy to the city’s economy. In turn, the Haitian students invigorated the Wildcats soccer program. The team had four captains. Bel was the one Haitian. He spoke the best English and served as an interpreter for some of the other Haitian kids who were still learning the language. Bel was a small but undaunted striker who drew praise from some rival coaches after the matches. He shined even more in the classroom. Dooley was taken into the National Honor Society as a junior and the following year, Bel came to Springfield High for his senior season. By November he had been accepted into the NHS. “It’s a big honor to get in and how it works is that returning members get to tell the news to the new ones who make it,” Dooley said. “It’s supposed to be random, who you get to tell, but I saw Pierre’s name on an envelope lying on the desk and I said, ‘I’m the one who’s going to tell him!’ “We had already established a friendship and we were teammates. I knew how excited he would be and he was. He was super, super thrilled.” Every year the Honor Society does a major fundraiser and last year the group put on a 5K run to raise funds for the Second Harvest Food Bank. They got sponsors, set up the event and then, if any NHS member wanted to compete, they could. “There were a lot more than 50 people and Pierre did run and he won…by a lot!” Dooley said with a chuckle. He said that’s the way he remembered his teammate and friend attacking all of life. ‘He was more than that’ Bel’s whole life changed in an instant when he was commandeered by ICE and fitted with the ankle monitor. Not only did it keep him from playing college soccer and force his transfer, but at Wright State he said he was teased by some people. That has bothered some WSU students who say that’s not what their school is about: Abby Mullins, a sophomore communications major from Miamisburg, was so disturbed by that she planned a grassroots protest in the Quad for Thursday afternoon. She would hold a homemade sign remembering Pierre, protesting ICE and admonishing WSU. Although the school has a vigil now planned for next week, she believed something needed to be said now to make people realize what happened and understand “we can do better.” “Everyone knows how ICE has been kidnapping people and illegally detaining people and sometimes using lethal force. “But the Wright State part of it really struck something in me. Wright State has anti-hazing training specifically for situations like this, but this time it didn’t work.” At a press conference Tuesday, DeWine — who with wife Fran had supported schools in Haiti in the name of their daughter who was killed in an auto accident in 1993 — said the deportation of Haitians from Springfield was “a very misguided and wrong policy.” He knows the terrible situation they would be sent back to. The ongoing violence in Haiti caused he and his wife to close their schools two years ago. The FAA recognizes the danger and refuses to let American air carriers land there. Pierre Damas Bel wanted to escape all that and did everything he could to become a productive addition to life here. “This is one of the most tragic outcomes of the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane attacks on the Haitian community,” said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance. In turn, there are some unnamed trolls on the internet who have taken cruel delight in the tragedy. Amelia Robinson, the Columbus Dispatch columnist, noted that in her column the other day. As she wrote: “‘I call it a savings and a plane ticket not to buy,’ Michael C. commented under a Dispatch Facebook post on Gov. Mike DeWine’s reaction to the Aug. 31 death of Springfield High School graduate Pierre Damas Bel.” Dooley doesn’t want to become part of the political tennis match this death has spurred. More importantly, he doesn’t want to see Pierre treated like that. He said the lessons his soccer team learned and showed everyone else — about working together, appreciating others’ differences and becoming friends — is being lost here: “It seems likes some people already are looking beyond Pierre.” He said his friend is being turned into a symbol: “He was more than that. He was a real person who worked hard, tried his best and was proud of the things he had done and hoped to do. “That’s why this is so hard to take.” DeWine was right. It’s a “horrible, horrible tragedy.”