Post by Scumhunter on Feb 8, 2024 17:18:30 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: gunmemorial.org)
From wpri.com:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Aaliyah Robinson describes her brother Craig as “the light of the room in the family,” and she’s still unsure why anyone would have wanted to kill him.
“I’m kind of blindsided, like everybody else. We only know what they’re releasing,” she told Target 12.
On Nov. 23, 2022, Providence police were called to Hazael Street for a serious crash. When officers got there, they quickly learned it was much more than that.
Police found the driver and sole occupant had been shot.
Detectives canvassed the neighborhood for any surveillance video and combed the scene for evidence. They found a shell casing on nearby Phebe Street, determining that was likely where the shooting took place.
Authorities have disclosed very little about the case, including the exact nature of Robinson’s injuries or how many shots were fired.
Target 12 asked the R.I. Department of Health to provide Robinson’s official cause and manner of death, but were told to ask the R.I. Attorney General’s Office. A spokesperson for Attorney General Peter Neronha declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Investigators initially said they believed the shooting was targeted. Craig Robinson, 24, was identified as the victim about a week later.
“They weren’t looking for anybody else but the victim … and maybe a friend,” Maj. David Lapatin said in an interview a week after the murder.
Aaliyah told Target 12 she feels someone may have tried to rob her brother, or maybe an argument went wrong, but she doesn’t feel the intent was to kill Craig that night. She still has no guesses as to who took her brother’s life.
“I don’t know who to trust,” she added. “I feel like somebody knows something, whether it’s the mother of the suspect, cousin, friend … something.”
A seven-line incident report is all that’s been made publicly available in the case so far.
Aaliyah said she spoke to her brother on the phone hours before his death, which happened the night before their family was supposed to get together for Thanksgiving.
“We talked about Thanksgiving,” she said. “I told him, you know, ‘Be there. Be there for 3 o’clock.'”
Aaliyah said she thinks the timing of her brother’s death may have hindered the investigation.
“I feel like because it was Thanksgiving eve that they didn’t do what they really were supposed to do,” she said. “They didn’t collect everything they needed.”
In November 2023, Target 12 filed a public records request with Providence police in an attempt to obtain additional reports related to the 2022 homicide investigation.
A month later, police denied releasing any further documents, saying they were withheld pursuant to the state’s public records act to prevent disclosing information that “could reasonably be expected to interfere with investigations of criminal activity or with enforcement proceedings, would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, or could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Aaliyah described her brother as a funny, sweet guy who was always there for his family. She’s asking anyone who may know something about his death to come forward.
“You should share the information,” she said. “This could be your brother, your mom, your sister, your uncle, your cousin.”
Craig Robinson was the city’s eighth homicide victim in 2022. Of the nine homicides that year, his remains the only one without any arrests.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez, who was a commander at the time, was on scene that night. In a wide-ranging interview, he told Target 12 that the investigation was still active.
“We’ve got to find the leads to be able to find answers for the families,” Perez said. “It’s something that we work on all the time. No homicide’s forgotten about.”
Craig Robinson’s death was not the first time Aaliyah and her family have faced tragedy. In 2014, her boyfriend and father to her daughter was killed in an eerily similar way. Davon Taylor was shot while driving in Providence. His sister, Destiny, was also injured in the shooting, but survived.
In that case, an arrest was made less than a week later. Joseph Taylor — who had no relation to the victims — was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
About a year later, Juan Ranero, who was behind the wheel of the car that Taylor fired from, was charged and also given life behind bars.
“It’s Providence, and Providence is very small,” Aaliyah said. “I’m hoping that someone has a heart — some type of heart — and wants to talk.”
If you have any information that could help, call the investigative division at Providence Police Department at (401) 243-6111.
www.wpri.com/target-12/somebody-knows-something-sister-seeks-answers-in-brothers-unsolved-murder/amp/
Thoughts?
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