Against Backdrop of Gun Ruling, A Sad, Familiar Scene Plays Out

Young Shooting Victim's Funeral Puts Politics Aside

Walter Robinson was buried yesterday, a week after he died and a day after the Supreme Court ruled that the District's gun ban is unconstitutional.

He was 16, and he was shot in the head June 20 in Ward 8, a part of the city where far too many boys have died before reaching adulthood. A student at Ballou High School, he was killed in an apparent accident. The suspect is a 14-year-old friend who appeared yesterday in juvenile court, shackled and in tears as he stood beside his parents and faced the judge.

He was the last juvenile killed in the city before the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the city's strict gun ban violated the Second Amendment guarantee of an individual's right to own a gun. But the gun ban didn't save Walter Robinson.

In the ensuing days, the teenager's death was yoked in many people's minds to the impending ruling.

Community activists held a vigil outside his home, hoping to convince the nation's highest court that more youths would die if the ban were overturned and weapons became more prevalent.

But there were no politics at yesterday's funeral at Bethel Pentecostal in Southwest Washington. Only grief and pews filled with friends and family members in a ritual so common in the District and close-in suburbs that an industry has popped up to create T-shirts, buttons and jackets to memorialize those who die so young.

Just before 11 a.m., as the viewing ended, screams from his 7-year-old niece, Nevaeh, pierced the gentle sound of hymns being sung. In a raw voice, Nevaeh implored her mother to do something. "Bring him back," she sobbed. "Bring him back. Whatever you do, bring him back."

Toni Robinson, 24, stood frozen as other family members calmed her daughter. Later, as the service began, she slipped out of her pumps, knelt in front of her baby brother's blue coffin and cried. In a poem to "Lil' Walt," she wrote and read, "I never got a chance to see you become a man. . . . Within no time at all, I lost you to a gun."

The gun was in the home of the teenage suspect's mother, according to testimony yesterday from homicide detective William Xanten. The suspect told him that he took it to Walter Robinson's home, where another teenage friend had spent the night, the detective said. It is unclear whether the suspect brought the gun on his own or at the encouragement of his two friends.

Wearing a white shirt, a pinstriped vest and bluejeans, the 14-year-old stood before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Wingo in Superior Court yesterday, tears running down his face as his public defender rubbed his back in a gesture of comfort. His wrists and ankles were shackled.

The youth is charged as a juvenile with murder and other counts. Because of his age, authorities did not release his name. The Washington Post attended his hearing on the condition that his name not be published.

Police testified that Walter was shot and killed in his second-floor bedroom between 9 and 10 a.m. June 20. His mother and a 7-year-old relative were in the house but did not hear the gun being fired.

The youth was killed instantly when the bullet burrowed into his right temple, exiting on the other side of his head, according to testimony. The teenage shooting suspect told Xanten that he was handing the loaded gun to Robinson when it went off. Xanten said that, based on his investigation, he believes the suspect was "being truthful."

The third teenager told police that he was awakened by the gunshot and saw the suspect holding the gun. That teen -- who Xanten said has not been charged -- told authorities the suspect told him that he "shot Walter accidentally."

According to Xanten, the suspect and the other teenager took the gun and the shell casing and put them in a dumpster about 100 yards behind the apartment building. Later that afternoon, the suspect's mother contacted police and said she would bring her son to the station for questioning if she could take him home afterward.

Court counselors said the suspect, who likes basketball and video games, has had suicidal thoughts and nightmares since the shooting of his childhood friend. It was the youth's first arrest, and court records show he tested negative for drugs.

Still, prosecutor Andrew Cruikshank of the D.C. attorney general's office urged the judge to hold the youth at a juvenile detention center.

"He knew the weapon was loaded and brought a gun into a house where he was spending the night, and as a result, a young man is dead," Cruikshank said.

The youth's attorney, Judy Pipe, said enough harm has been done.

"This is clearly not premeditated. This is a tragic accident," she said. "He needs counseling now. He needs help. Let's not compound one tragedy with another."

Wingo agreed, ordering the youth to stay with his father in Maryland until the next hearing, July 8. After yesterday's hearing, the suspect's parents offered their condolences to Walter's family.

"I apologize," the suspect's father said. "[Walter] was a son to us as well."

"They were like brothers. I'm grieving for both of them," the suspect's mother added.