FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com MAY 23, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3 AS FAMILY MOURNS TEEN, COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO ‘STOP THE CARNAGE’ BY MAGGIE HAYES [email protected] What community leaders are calling a “senseless act of violence” has left a 14-year-old girl dead, a family devastated and a neighborhood outraged. D’aja “Asia” Robinson was shot and killed on Saturday, May 18 aboard a Q6 bus near Sutphin Boulevard and Rockaway Boulevard. Robinson was on her way from a sweet 16 birthday party when a shooter allegedly fi red multiple times into the bus from the sidewalk, police said. “That was my only child. My heart. My everything,” Shadia Sands, the teen’s mother, said through tears. “I don’t know how to deal with this.” Since the incident, there has been an outpouring of grief from the community. Friends and family covered a bulletin board near the bus stop with hundreds of messages to Robinson. They described her as a charismatic, sweet girl who was a gifted singer and dancer. Her grandmother, Cheryl Sands, stood at the board, stroking pictures of “her baby.” “I’d die myself for her to come back here and live her life,” she said. “My heart is bleeding. She was a good girl.” The southeast Queens community came together on Tuesday, May 21 to call on the shooter or shooters to come forward. NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police are looking for a suspect between the ages of 18 and 25 who was last seen wearing a black sweater, according to reports. Councilmember Ruben Wills noted that prior to the shooting, the area went 255 days without a violent incident and said that South Jamaica is “not a hyperviolent community.” The City Council announced it allocated $4.8 million to initiatives such as Cure Violence to put an end to shootings. Wills said there will be a meeting next month to discuss directing resources to the community. “What we do know is that we failed Robinson. The United States Congress in particular failed to protect her,” said Congressmember Gregory Meeks. Meeks called on Congress to “enact meaningful gun control legislation to help stop the carnage in communities and homes and now buses across the nation.” THE COURIER/Photo by Maggie Hayes Family and friends remember D’aja “Asia” Robinson, who was struck and killed by a stray bullet aboard a Q6 bus. Students at Robinson’s school, Campus Magnet High School, wore purple, pink and blue earlier this week in memory of their classmate. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS. Additional reporting by Cristabelle Tumola. REGENTS EXAMS BEGIN JUNE 11 City to get second STADIUM IN QUESTION BY TERENCE M. CULLEN [email protected] The announcement of a new team may be a major score for soccer offi cials, but it pushes back the goalposts Manchester City Football Club and the Yankees are partnering offi cials announced on Tuesday, May 21. It is Major League Soccer’s (MLS) 20th expansion team. MLS and the partnership aim to have the squad up and running by the 2015 soccer season, The team will start by playing at a temporary venue. “This is a transformative moment for Major League Soccer and soccer in America as we welcome our 20th club called New York City Football Club,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “It provides us with a rivalry with the New York Red Bulls ... rivalries drive the success in soccer around the world.” In the partnership, England’s Manchester City FC will handle soccer operations while the Yankees will focus on establishing the team in New York. The league spent nearly a year publicly lobbying for a 25,000-seat stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Parkland advocates have actively opposed the effort. While the league’s talks with the city have seen ups and downs, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has remained confident New York and MLS will ink a deal before his final term ends in December. Garber said it was too soon to discuss where New York City FC will play its fi rst season. Yankees President Randy Levine said Yankee Stadium and Citi Field were possibilities. Both venues have hosted exposition soccer matches since each opened in 2009. “Citi Field could be as much of a temporary site as Yankee Stadium,” Levine said. Finding a long-term home is now up to the owners, Garber said, with MLS essentially taking a back seat in the process. Ferran Soriano, CEO of Manchester City Football Club, said Flushing Meadows-Corona Park will still be explored as an option along with other spots in the city. He added that wherever developers go, they will actively seek community input. During the lobbying process, Garber and other MLS offi - cials said Flushing Meadows was the ideal location for a soccer should leave the park alone and look elsewhere. After Tuesday’s announcement, the Fairness Coalition of Queens issued a statement saying it was open to the team, but suggested using a spot that would not take away parkland. “The proposal for a stadium inside the heart of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is deeply fl awed and would irrevocably damage a vital community resource.” Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, said the new owners’ openness to fi nding a new site was a sign that a stadium in Flushing Meadows would not have worked. “The plan to install that stadium in Flushing Meadows- Corona Park was dead on arrival,” he said. “We’re very happy that they are now beginning to acknowledge that.” He faulted both MLS and the mayor for their discussions “I think Major League Soccer was getting some mixed signals from the Bloomberg administration,” he said. “But the problem is, Major League Soccer should be ashamed of themselves, to begin with, that they should get away with this.” THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Daniel Ross holds up a picture of his mother, Alice, who was killed 10 years ago in a staged accident. ● Intensive 6-hour review sessions soccer team QUEENS MLS for a new Queens stadium. up to establish the New York City Football Club (FC), pitch. But some Queens residents have argued the league to date. ● NYS Licensed Instructors ● All Major Subjects ● Limited Class Sizes ● $150 per subject Course location: Queens College* *not a function of Queens College CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE DELAYED JUSTICE Family says Alice’s Law needs to be passed BY MELISSA CHAN [email protected] The family of the 71-year-old Queens woman killed 10 years ago in a staged car accident said bureaucratic delays have held up justice — and a proposed law to stiffen penalties in such cases. “It should have passed,” said Daniel Ross, 56, of Bayside. “I don’t want another family to go through what we went through.” His mother, Alice Ross, died in 2003 when her car was struck in Bellerose by another vehicle. According to the district attorney, Waurd Demolaire of Brooklyn intentionally rammed his car into hers to collect insurance money under the state’s No-Fault Law. He was convicted of manslaughter and conspiracy in 2006 and released on probation last October. “The perpetrator got off with a very reduced sentence, considering the fact that he murdered my sister,” said Alice’s brother, Don Peters. “Now he’s free to walk the streets of New York again.” Legislation dubbed Alice’s Law has been proposed in the State Senate and Assembly. Both bills would impose tougher criminal penalties on people who engage in staged accidents. But legislators said failure to compromise on two different versions of the law has stalled the ratification process. The Assembly wants to classify staging accidents to defraud insurance as a class E felony, the lowest felony offense. It carries a prison sentence of one to five years. A bill passed in the State Senate would make the crime a class D felony and upgrade it to class B if the accident causes serious injury or death to another person. That could mean a prison sentence of five to more than 25 years. “It’s continually frustrating that there seems to be a philosophical difference between the State Senate and Assembly,” said State Senator Tony Avella, a cosponsor of the Senate bill. “Increasing penalties for any sort of crime, the Assembly just won’t do it.” Assemblymember David Weprin, a sponsor of the bill in the lower house, said he is optimistic that both houses will reach a compromise and get the legislation passed this year. The legislature has less than one month to resolve differences and get one bill approved in both houses before the session ends June 20. Last year, the State Senate passed its bill in March and sent it to the Assembly. But according to records, the Assembly’s amended bill reached the Senate on June 19 — too late for action by the upper house. Alice’s Law was first proposed in 2007 and has been reintroduced every year since 2010. “It’s been too long in coming,” said Peters, 78, of Saratoga Springs. “The process has been much too slow. I wish it would become law. I think it would be a very appropriate recognition of that anniversary.” Daniel Ross showed The Courier a copy of a letter from authorities saying the man responsible for his mother’s untimely death was now free. “That was murder,” he said. “It could have been anybody’s mother.”
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