Rapper 50 Cent helped pay for the funeral of a teenager girl killed by a stray bullet in his hometown of Queens.
D’aja Robinson was returning from a Sweet 16 on May 19 when gunman fired about 10 bullets into the crowded Q6 bus as it idled at the corner of Rockaway and Sutphin Boulevards shortly after 8:45 pm. One of the bullets struck the 14-year-old in the head, but police don’t believe that Robinson was the intended target.
“The 14-year-old girl had nothing to with this,” New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “It’s a terrible tragedy, but it’s indicative of the fact that we just have too many guns and too many young people with access to these guns.”
Police questioned a person of interest in the case last Thursday, according to Kelly. The 16-year-old suspect was released with no charges.
D’aja Robinson’s funeral was held Friday at Greater A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica. 2,500 people showed up to mourn the teenager, whom mourners recalled as an honor roll student who liked to dance and sing .
Robinson’s best friend, Shaquanna Almonds, spoke at the funeral.
“We had so much fun, laughing, dancing, taking pictures,” she said. “Who could have known walking down the block would have been my last time with my best friend? Who could have known when I was holding her in my arms?”
Almonds then tearfully addressed her best friend’s white coffin.
“D’aja,” she said. “I miss you so much.”
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, paid for the horse and carriage procession that carried Robinson’s coffin to her funeral service.
“People always try and paint negative images about me I’m the most genuine down to earth person and I didn’t forget where I came from I came through for baby girl by providing a horse and carriage for her,” 50 wrote on his Facebook page. He included a collage of pictures of D’aja Robinson and her funeral.
“She was pretty, innocent and didnt [sic] deserve to die like that,” he added.
[50 Cent photo credit: cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com ]
[D’aja Robinson photo courtesy of D’aja Robinson Fund / Facebook ]