COLUMBIA — He found comfort in Kentrell Brothers’ hands — the same ones used to rip a football from a receiver for an interception. He found compassion in Brothers’ eyes — the ones the linebacker uses to sniff out opposing offenses’ plays.
Bennie Barker met Brothers Oct. 25, 2010. It was three days after Barker’s stepson, Jared Yost, died. A friend accidentally fired a gun into Yost’s chest.
Barker didn’t want to be in the Guthrie High School principal’s office that day, but he needed to be. He felt it was his duty as a husband. He had to go with his wife, Christy Barker, to clean her son’s locker. So he did, and he found comfort in Brothers.
He remembers Brothers’ smile, clean-cut look and muscular physique. He remembers a firm handshake, and the way Brothers looked him in the eyes as they spoke.
Their son used to help Brothers with math and give him rides on his motorcycle. Jared Yost’s parents didn’t know that. Now that they did, it helped them grieve.
Bennie Barker still doesn’t know why Brothers was the one the principal and school counselor called into the office that day to take the parents to Yost’s locker.
“I don’t think they picked him,” he said. “I think he picked us.”
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