Around 500 people packed Zion Cathedral Church in Freeport, L.I., and joined the dad, Tramel Dunston, as he mourned the short life of Amiyah Kayla Dunston.
Family had to pull Dunston away from the casket. He held a stuffed giraffe under his arm.
His daughter was buried in a pink dress wearing a tiara. Her casket was loaded into a glass carriage pulled by two white horses.
The sad ceremony was filled with imagery describing Amiyah as a princess. The program included a heartbreaking essay by Amiyah imagining her life 20 years in the future.
During her eulogy, Yanira Castillo, a cousin to Amiyah’s mother, called the girl “a dreamer” and “a peacemaker.”
Amiyah's heartbroken parents Mayra Dunston and Tramel Castillo clutch their late daughter's stuffed animals Saturday as they exit the church.
“It doesn’t seem real that you are gone, Mimi, I don’t want to accept it. We love you beyond words and we’re sick without you baby,” she said.
“In just nine short years you played such a big role in all of our lives. I’m so sorry this tragedy happened to you. We just want you back.”
Mark Gray, Amiyah’s principal at Plaza Elementary School in Baldwin, said she was adored by her teachers.
“When she walked into a room, she filled it up with joy with a smile that would light up the room on the darkest days, a smile you could never catch her without,” Gray said.
Amayah's casket was pulled away in a white horse-drawn carriage.
Amiyah was playing with two friends in a fenced-in backyard with the dog last week when it went berserk, witnesses told the Daily News.
The powerful pit bull, named Kane, charged one of the cops who arrived on the scene.
The officer opened fire and killed the dog. The pit bull’s owner, Carlyle Arnold, 29, was arrested on an unrelated charge of violating an order of protection.
(NY Daily News - Nov 14, 2015)
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