NEW YORK CITY — A Queens teen is being sought as the triggerman who sprayed a crowded city bus with gunfire two weeks ago, killing 14-year-old honor student D’aja Robinson, DNAinfo New York has learned.
The alleged gunman, an 18-year-old from St. Albans whose name was withheld by law enforcement officials, is said to be a wannabe member of the South Jamaica-based crew called the Snow Gang.
Sources said they believe the prime suspect strafed a Q6 bus with nine bullets from a .40-caliber handgun on Saturday May 18 on Sutphin Boulevard at Baisley Pond Park, striking Robinson in the head as she was heading home from a Sweet 16 party.
Teams of NYPD fugitive hunters were tracking the suspect’s movements but have yet to find him, sources said. They have not recovered the murder weapon and consider the suspected shooter to be armed and dangerous.
Sources say the motive for the senseless killing continues to remain a mystery despite investigators' suspicions that another 14-year-old girl on the bus who is associated with a rival gang called EBK was the intended target.
That theory, and others fueled by social media, surfaced on Facebook, where numerous people purporting to either be witnesses to the killing or to have intimate knowledge about the motive posted information.
But homicide detectives who have tracked down all the writers have checked their stories and believe they were largely exaggerated or speculative.
Police were questioning a 16-year-old person of interest last week, but found him to be unrelated to Robinson's murder. He was hit with a gun charge.
The bus on which Robinson was traveling was jammed with young people, sources said.
Investigators do not believe the shooter could have selected a single target and expected to hit her.
“Maybe he just thought spraying the bus would help him make his bones with the gang and make him seem like the big man on campus,” a law enforcement sources said.
“We don’t believe he is a full gang member, but he certainly is a full-fledged a---hole,” a source said.
Robinson, dressed in a lavender dress in a white coffin, was mourned by more than 2,000 people last Friday at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral.
The ceremony concluded with a horse and carriage procession partially paid for by famed rapper “50-Cent,” a Jamaica native.
