Monday 14 December 2020
OVERWHELMING GRIEF: Aaliyah Riley, sister of murdered Ashanti Riley, hugs the coffin during her funeral at the Mt D’Or SDA Church on Monday. - AYANNA KINSALE
Friends and family of Ashanti Dennisia Riley said their final tearful goodbyes to the brutally slain 18-year-old on Monday afternoon. Her funeral was held at Mount D’Or Seventh Day Adventist Church and her body laid to rest at the San Juan Public Cemetery.
Riley’s cousin Pastor Steve Riley delivered the sermon.
“From Sunshine Avenue to sunset, Santa Cruz,” he said. “Hers will forever be the sad but true story of a teenager who left Sunshine Avenue (and) ended up, as it were, figuratively on Sunset Boulevard. From sunshine to sunset.”
The screams of a grief-stricken Candice Riley permeated the church when the coffin of her late daughter Ashanti, 18, was wheeled into it for the funeral service yesterday.
Ashantiâs father, Lenwin Barrow, siblings Aaliyah Riley, Nanyamka Wellington and Jonathan Riley, along with their close friends and well-wishers, wept uncontrollably.
It was impossible to miss the black masks mourners wore with the message âIn loving memory of Ashanti Rileyâ.
Other members of the congregation at the Mt DâOr Seventh Day Adventist Church shook their heads in shame and disgust at the tragedy which had befallen beloved Ashanti.
Delivering the eulogy, Ashantiâs sister, Aaliyah, said she was âblessedâ to have Ashanti as a friend.
Pastor calls for end to violence against women at Ashanti s funeral cnc3.co.tt - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cnc3.co.tt Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.