QUEENS — A South Jamaica street will soon be named for a 14-year-old girl who was killed by a stray bullet while riding a city bus, local officials said.
A portion of Sutphin Boulevard between Rockaway Boulevard and 125th Avenue will be known as "D’Aja Naquai Robinson Way," after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the bill to co-name the corner into law Wednesday, according to Councilman Ruben Wills' office.
Robinson just left a Sweet 16 party on May 18, 2013, and was riding the Q6 bus with friends when a stray bullet hit her in the head on Sutphin Boulevard, near Baisley Pond Park.
The teen was the unintended victim of a gang dispute, police said at the time.
The crime prompted the city the following year to launch the Gun Violence Crisis Management System, an initiative to reduce gun violence in areas with high rates of crime by using community interventions, anti-violence messaging and support services.
“D’Aja Naquai Robinson was robbed of the opportunity to make her own contribution to this world, but the outrage her death sparked helped to harden the City’s resolve to further reduce shootings,” Wills, who sponsored the street co-naming, said in a statement.
In May, D'Aja's accused killer, 24-year-old Kevin McClinton, was convicted of murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Wills’ office said that the date for the official co-naming event has not yet been decided, and it will be later coordinated with Robinson’s family.
“We have a responsibility to remind the public about the indiscriminate nature of gun-violence, and the destruction it causes,” Wills added.
