By Rich Bockmann
Hundreds lined the block around St. Albans’ Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral last week to remember D’aja Robinson as police continue to investigate the 14-year-old’s senseless killing on a city bus.
The mourners, many of them youngsters, packed the sidewalk under overcast skies waiting to get into the church for the funeral Friday morning.
“[T]hey say when it rains during a funeral, it means the gates of Heaven opened up to bring their Angel home,” tyi_baby1 posted on Twitter along with photos of two white horses pulling a white carriage carrying D’aja’s white casket. “You’re safe up there now baby girl…. Taken too soon[.]”
Queens native Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson posted a story from his website on his Facebook page saying the hip-hop star had paid for the horse-drawn carriage as a gesture of solidarity with his hometown southeast Queens community.
“Stand up thing to do,” one commentator wrote on Jackson’s Facebook page. “Unfortunate that our children cannot even ride a city bus without thinking of their safety. I’m sure that her family is relieved to not have worried about the financial part of mourning their daughter. I have a 6-year-old lil man, and worry all the time about senseless crime, that our children get caught in the middle of. Sad world to live in these days.”
Police Wednesday said they had released a suspect who was taken into custody for questioning the previous week and were still investigating the May 18 shooting that left D’aja — or D’asia, as she was known to friends — dead.
D’aja was riding the Q6 bus home in the rain with a friend from a Sweet 16 party the two had attended.
As the bus sat idling near the intersection of Rockaway and Sutphin boulevards in South Jamaica, an unknown gunman with possible gang connections opened fire at the bus, shooting at least nine rounds from a .40-caliber handgun before fleeing into Baisley Pond Park, police said.
D’aja was fatally struck in the head.
During a rally near the bus stop several days after the shooting, D’aja’s mother thanked the community for their outpouring of support and denounced the violence that had taken her daughter’s life.
A $22,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer, who was described as a man between the ages of 18 and 24.
Anyone with information can contact NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. Tipsters can also visit nypdcrimestoppers.com or send a text to 274673 (CRIMES) and then enter TIP577.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
