CYPRESS HILLS — Dressed in a tiny white suit and wearing a white Yankees cap, 1-year-old Antiq Hennis was mourned by loved ones Friday night, five days after he was shot in his stroller in an alleged gang retaliation.
Family members arrived at the Grace Funeral Chapel in black limousines about 5:30 p.m., some of them dressed in white T-shirts with the name "Antiq" and the number 1 superimposed on a blue sky. Others showed up dressed all in white and carrying white balloons to honor the baby.
Cherise Miller, the baby's mother, had asked people to dress in white to "celebrate his life," his uncle, Beany Miller said.
The services came just hours after police picked up alleged shooters Daquan Breland, 23, and Daquan Wright, 19, in Wilkes-Barre, PA — on charges that they killed Hennis with a bullet meant for his father, Anthony Hennis. The baby was declared dead at the scene, police said.
Miller, 46, who lives in Long Island, said that people in the neighborhood were angry at Hennis for taking his baby boy out in public.
"If you have problems in the street, you don't walk with your child," he said.
Hennis arrived a few hours after the memorial began wearing a large white T-shirt that read "RIP TIQ" and showed the baby riding a toy all-terrain vehicle.
About 200 people trickled into the funeral home during the wake and memorial service.
"I don't like the feeling of going in there and seeing that little boy," said mourner Ralph Kokason, 63. "I came here to pay my respects. You see the little boy laying there. It's going to be emotional."
Anthony Hennis picked up little Antiq at his mother's house on Riverdale Avenue in Brownsville and was taking him to his grandmother's house on Sept. 1 when the baby was shot.
Cops believe that Breland targeted Anthony Hennis because he blamed him for shooting Wright's brother, Craig Wright, in a drive-by shooting on July 29, 2012, around the block from where Antiq was killed.
Craig Wright escaped that shooting with a leg wound, while Andrew Void, 17, was also shot in the leg, police said at the time.
The 2012 shooting also wounded 2-year-old Aryanna Prince, who has since recovered, her grandmother said.
