A 17-year-old Brooklyn girl fatally shot in the head inside a Queens home, allegedly by another teen, had presented a school project on the dangers of gun violence shortly before her untimely death, according to her devastated mother.
“How did my baby die to the same thing she was trying to raise awareness on?” Krystle Barkley told The Post about her daughter, Deaza Barkley, who was discovered unconscious by cops inside a Jamaica home just after 5 p.m. on Feb. 15.
The teen was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she later died, according to police.
In a photo from last April, a blazer-clad Deaza Barkley is seen smiling ear-to-ear while giving her slideshow presentation inside a classroom at Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School in Brooklyn, where she attended.
“Gun violence and climate change are two major issues that are often seen as unrelated but they have a lot of connections, like the way both impact the community,” Deaza Barkley wrote on the “context” slide of the presentation, before adding, “by recognizing this problem we can do something and create a sustainable future [sic].”
Cops charged a 16-year-old boy with manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm in relation to the girl’s shocking death, after recovering a gun at the scene.
The boy previously told police he was at his grandfather’s house on the tree-lined, residential street, and had invited the girl over when no one else was home, law enforcement sources said.
He also claimed that the deadly shooting was accidental and occurred while he was playing with the gun.
It remains unclear how the teens knew each other.
Deaza Barkley’s mother remembers her daughter, whom she lovingly called “Sugar,” as being like “sunshine wherever she went.” She said she was as an excellent sister and friend.
“Playing with her little brother and older sister was a mandatory for her everyday,” Krystle Barkley said, adding her daughter “insisted” on dropping off and picking up her younger brother from school each day.
The high school cheerleader would “often convince” her parents to open their East New York, Brooklyn, home up to her friends who were having a hard time, “so they wouldn’t be on the street,” Krystle explained.
“She wanted nothing more than to make her family proud.”
And now, “my family will never be the same,” Krystle Barkley said.
After graduation, Deaza Barkley dreamed of joining the Air Force. She had just started receiving college acceptance letters in the mail at the time of her murder, according to her mother and a new fundraiser by the Barkley family.
A GoFundMe created by Krystle Barkley yesterday to “help the family not become overwhelmed” has already raised nearly $1,200 of its $1,000 goal so far.
“I want to thank everyone for the love and support given to my baby girl,” the grieving mom said.
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