ROCKDALE —During a break in Tuesday night’s news conference at the Rockdale Fire Station, Chenier A. Alston, senior pastor of New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, where Rev. Warren Beard was a pastor’s assistant, took the podium telling reporters he believes there is someone else responsible for ending the life of Beard, 53.
“This is a devastating loss for us all, a devastating loss for his family, for our church,” Pastor Alston told reporters. “We lost a man who loved his wife, loved his children, loved his family. A man who loved God with everything in him, a man passionate about his faith, as his son stated, a man who would give the shirt off his back, always encouraging, always trying to help the least of us.
“I’ve never known the man to be hostile or be violent, just a great guy. He’s one of the greatest persons I ever met in my life and that was one of the reasons in helping make sure that he was the assistant pastor of our church. Words can’t even begin to describe how we feel.”
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Around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, Will County Coroner Laurie Summers revealed a positive identification was made on the body found inside the car in about 8-feet-deep of dirty Des Plaines River water.
Beard’s body was found in the driver’s seat of his own vehicle, Summers told reporters, family and friends of Beard gathered at the Rockdale press conference.
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Relatives have told authorities that Rev. Beard, assistant pastor at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church, was last seen about 9 p.m., Tuesday, July 2, in Joliet in the 400 block of North Broadway Street.
For the past year, the Brandon Road Bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic and has been kept in an upright position to allow for the barge traffic to pass through daily.
Pastor Beard’s car plunged into the water very late at night, on July 2; video surveillance of the mishap was first discovered on Tuesday morning by the lock master for the Army Corps of Engineers.
“What I want answered is, ‘Who did this,” Pastor Alston declared. “I don’t believe this, I may be jumping the gun, but … Warren was not, he was not suicidal. The fact that his car launched off that bridge that were barricades there that had to be driven around.
“And we know how passionate he was about his job, his wife, his children, so we just want answers. And whatever those answers are, we are going to get justice for him … He was the greatest person, one of the great men I ever met in my life and this is painful.”
Joliet Patch: “Let’s talk about the police investigation. What would you hope would happen from here on out now that we’re at this point right now, as far as to get to the bottom of what really happened?”
Pastor Alston: “I would hope that the police would passionately pursue every single lead. He was with a person, he was last seen with a particular person, and we pray that police would definitely investigate him and really just give us some answers.”
Patch: “That person was in Joliet?”
Pastor Alston: “Yes.”
Next, one of the Chicago TV reporters asked what he thought happened to Rev. Beard.
“Personally, do I believe foul play? I do,” Alston told everyone. “Because I know his character and I know, he’s not going to take his life. He was full of life. He was passionate about life, he loved life, he loved his children. We would always talk about his youngest son, Warren Jr., and I was training Warren Jr. in basketball a couple summers ago, he was always telling me about him getting better … He shared things about his family life.
“Something he possessed that I wished I had, he knew how to approach the pulpit and turn it into Comedy Central. And he would make jokes, and he would have everyone in there laughing, but it would be such a powerful message … and we would laugh and understand that he’s trying to help us understand how important it is to walk closer with God.”
Another Chicago TV reporter asked Pastor Alston to comment on the fact it took a week for authorities to realize Beard might be underwater in the Des Plaines River, specifically, near Rockdale at the Brandon Road Bridge Lock & Dam.
“I will say this, I understand that the police have a job to do and there’s a process this needs to go through. Are there some things we may be questioning right now? Yes, but … we just want answers. We want to know what happened. And if the ball was dropped, we want to know that the ball was dropped. But I wouldn’t criticize.
“I thank God we got an answer today, it’s not the answer we wanted, but we got an answer today. And that’s important. And I know these guys … they spent hours down there … I don’t want to criticize law enforcement now because I don’t know the procedures that were part of that, but we got our answer today, and it’s a painful answer.”
Before his press conference ended, Joliet Patch asked Pastor Alston about the ongoing police probe surrounding Rev. Beard’s death.
Joliet Patch: “But clearly the hope is that law enforcement will interview this other person?”
“Oh, absolutely, absolutely,” Alston responded. “We are looking at every person that is suspected to be involved with this, needs to be interviewed. And if they’re a part of it, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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