By Patrick Donachie
Assembled near the bus stop where D’Aja Robinson died from a gunshot more than three years earlier, family members, elected officials and members of the community gathered to remember the 14-year-old girl and pledge that more would be done to ensure that other young lives were not cut short by gun violence.
“We are here to memorialize an innocent person, a bystander,” Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) said at the beginning of the ceremony, which was held in Baisley Pond Park near the intersection of Sutphin and Rockaway boulevards.
On May 18, 2013, Robinson boarded a Q6 bus at the intersection at around 8:30 p.m., preparing to head home from a friend’s Sweet 16 birthday party. Someone fired into the bus. Wills said the shooters intended to hit a rival gang member who was also on the bus. Robinson was struck in the head and died at Jamaica Hospital, and two men were arrested for the crime. Kevin McClinton, 22, was convicted of the murder earlier this year. On Wednesday, he was sentenced for 40 years to life in prison.
Shamel Capers, the other suspect, is awaiting trial.
Shadia Sands, Robinson’s mother, expressed her thanks to everyone who offered her family support during the previous three years as she stood at the podium, flanked by her own mother and a picture of her daughter.
“As parents, we’re strong, we try our best,” she said. “We take things one day at a time. We’re survivors. This is another milestone on the course to change.”
After Robinson’s death, elected officials launched New York City’s Gun Violence Crisis Management System, which allocates resources to specific police precincts with high levels of gun violence. In South Jamaica, LIFE Camp, a Cure Violence partner headed by Erica Ford, has seen 600 days without a single shooting death in its target area, which spans from 111th and 118th Avenues from 146th Street to Guy R. Brewer Boulevard.
Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn), a co-chairman of the Council’s Gun Violence Task Force, said the push to reduce gun violence in communities like south Jamaica belied easy solutions and such areas needed robust support from the city.
“Don’t say you’re sorry if you won’t give us the resources we need,” he said. “Stop putting forward simplistic solutions to complex problems, because if the simplistic solutions worked, they would have worked already.”
Wills also briefly mentioned two initiatives he was working on with other elected officials, but hesitated to go too far into specifics. The D’Aja Robinson Redemption Act, he said, would allocate funds so people convicted of gun violence could perform community service in their neighborhoods post-release.
He also was looking for spaces on Sutphin Boulevard for the D’Aja Robinson and Dalilah Muhammad Young Girls Center, where teenage women from the community could gather in a safe space for activities, programs, and to hang out in peace. Muhammad is a track-and-field athlete who was born in Jamaica and won a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Reach reporter Patrick Donachie by e-mail at pdona
