The Long Island teen killed on his birthday by a subway car – after a pal dared him to follow him across the tracks into the path of a train – was laid to rest today at a funeral where a priest warned the youth’s friends to stay away from booze and drugs.
After Liam Armstrong’s death, police found a bottle of rum smashed inside his backpack. Armstrong, 18, had been celebrating his birthday with two schoolmates.
Hundreds of mourners filled the Holy Cross Church in Smithtown for a 10:30 a.m. funeral mass for the Nesconset High School senior, who died last Tuesday, when he was hit by a Manhattan subway train.
“I know you are hurting. I know your enthusiasm for life has been struck down by this tragedy,’’ Father James McNamara told scores of Armstrong’s high school classmates at the memorial service.
“Please do not keep this wound inside yourselves. Please do not seek refuge from your pain in the passing pleasures of this life,’’ said McNamara. He said the teens might be “wondering why God took Liam on his birthday?
“Let me be perfectly clear- God did not do this. It is a tragic accident but it is not God’s will,’’ said Mcnamara. “How can you best honor Liam? You can honor him by honoring the Gift of Life.
“In your pain, you will not find life – if you seek it in drugs or alcohol. You will find despair and disappointment there,’’ warned McNamara.