Warrior is buried
Ma fought gangs after teen girl was slain
A Long Island anti-gang crusader who was struck and killed by a motorist at her slain daughter's memorial was saluted as a warrior Friday by mourners still shaken by the tragedy.
At a funeral at the same Brentwood church where her teenage daughter was remembered, friends and relatives joined dignitaries and law enforcement officials to pay respects to Evelyn Rodriguez, who had turned her anger and grief over the suspected gang murder of her child into a quest for safe streets and justice.
“Certain people told Evelyn that she would create big enemies if she joined forces with the people here today,” said Barbara Medina, a crime victim's advocate who worked with Rodriguez on her anti-gang crusade. “She was kind, she was warm, she was full of love, she turned pain into passion, and she became a warrior to her community, and we can't take that away from her.”
Rodriguez was killed on a Brentwood street on Sept. 14 — two years to the day and near the same spot that her 16-year-old daughter Kayla Cuevas' beaten and slashed body was found.
The still-grieving mom was attending a vigil for Kayla when she was struck and killed by an SUV whose driver she had just argued with over the placement of the memorial.
Witnesses had said Rodriguez and another person were seen standing in the street and yelling at the SUV driver before the vehicle sped forward and struck her.
The driver stayed and called 911, said police, who have not released the name of the person who was behind the wheel.
Kayla and her friend, Nisa Mickens, 15, were walking when police say they were ambushed by MS-13 gang members. Mickens' body was found a few hundred feet away near an elementary school.
Rodriguez, 50, spoke out against the gang and the local school district after the girls were attacked with machetes and baseball bats. Their alleged killers, who were arrested along with about a dozen other suspected MS-13 members, face murder charges that could result in the death penalty.
Rodriguez filed a $110 million lawsuit last December against the Brentwood School District, claiming it ignored warnings that MS-13 members were threatening Kayla. The lawsuit says the girls had been bullied for two years.
Rodriguez stood with Cuevas' father, Freddy Cuevas, and Mickens' parents at the State of the Union in January and sat with President Trump and Rep. Pete King at a gang violence forum in May on Long Island.
“I've never known anyone with more dedication and guts than Evelyn,” King told mourners Friday at her funeral. “Her message was very direct: MS-13 must be crushed. She was tireless and relentless in her courageous cause.”
Liz Cordero, a family friend, said she could not understand why the driver had not been arrested.
“The tension is extremely high in Brentwood,” Cordero said. “I am just furious. She did not have to die that way.”