In a release, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he "delivered a floor speech
on the life and death of Erika Robinson," 26, who was "victim of a
mass shooting that occurred in October at a New Haven nightclub."
“We
owe it to [Erika] and to her family that her legacy will be one of
protecting others like her, protecting others across America, regardless
of the neighborhood or the place in that neighborhood, whether it is
downtown New Haven, an urban area, or Newtown, a suburban neighborhood.
It should not matter where gun violence is a threat. We should eradicate
it everywhere. And it should not matter who
may be the victim of gun violence, what her background may be, her
race, religion, anything about her. Every human being, every person in
the United States of America, is deserving of protection that our
society failed to give to this young woman,”
Blumenthal said during the speech.
Video of Blumenthal’s remarks is
here; full text of his speech.
“Later
in the weekend, I visited with the family of Erika Robinson of West
Haven, Connecticut, who was shot and killed at a nightclub in New Haven
on October 26.
This seemingly random act of violence left Erika dead and five other
individuals injured by gunfire. I have spent months and have been
grateful for the experience with the families of those victims in
Newtown, and I was equally grateful to spend
this time with Erika's family, Celeste and Greg Fulcher, at their home
and I want to thank them for welcoming me to their home on that day.
“Erika
Robinson was only 26 years old when she became a victim of gun
violence, and she clearly was a person full of joy and life and goodness
for
all of her 26 years and including the day that she perished. She was
building a business, a clothing line, and as her business grew, a local
store started selling that line of [clothes], and those who knew her
described her as hard working and driven, and
she was compassionate. Most recently, she released a special collection
in honor of the breast cancer awareness month. She had enormous
potential, she did everything right, she played by the rules, she stayed
out of trouble, and she had the support of her
two loving parents, and she was on track to fulfill the American Dream.
And now her life tragically has been reduced to a statistic unless we
make sure that it is more than a statistic and that we work and fight to
make her legacy one of helping to protect
others, helping to prevent gun violence and take victims like her who
are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, as she was that night
in New Haven, when a shooter who was illegally in possession of a
firearm, in fact, apparently on bail, turning to
take as a victim someone else in the crowd that evening in the
nightclub, and she became a victim that night, inadvertently,
unintentionally, and five others were wounded.
“I
have her picture here. Erika was more than a statistic. She was a
person. And part of her clothing line was this small card that she
fashioned
herself: ‘It's so regular for us to say you only live once, but do you
deeply understand that it's real? What I am trying to say is be
fearless. Do things you always wanted to do. Never let anyone hold you
back. Enjoy this thing we call life while we can.
People going to talk regardless, so be you. Forever, Erika Robinson.’
And may that legacy be forever. May that legacy be with us forever and
inspire us to work as we have done on behalf of the families of Newtown
and as we should be doing on behalf of the
10,000 other victims of gun violence since Newtown. And the victims are
not only the victims who have perished among those 10,000. There are
others who have been injured like the five who were injured that night
when the shooter at that nightclub in New Haven
was aiming for someone else and sprayed gunfire that killed Erika, took
her as a casualty but also injured others severely and traumatized
countless others who saw or watched or heard what went on in that
nightclub that night, an establishment that was legally
licensed by the state of Connecticut, legally licensed to entertain
people and charge for their being there, an establishment that was the
last place Erika Robinson knew.
“Such
a promising young woman at the wrong place at the wrong time, a woman
who could have contributed so much to New Haven, to Connecticut, to
our country. A tragic loss for her family that continues to honor her
courage, and strength, and a tragic loss for all of us, and for the
thousands of people who came to her funeral because she had already in
those young 26 years, already touched so many lives.
We owe it to her and to her family that her legacy will be one of
protecting others like her, protecting others across America, regardless
of the neighborhood or the place in that neighborhood, whether it is
downtown New Haven, an urban area, or Newtown, a
suburban neighborhood. It should not matter where gun violence is a
threat. We should eradicate it everywhere. And it should not matter who
may be the victim of gun violence, what her background may be, her race,
religion, anything about her. Every human being,
every person in the United States of America, is deserving of
protection that our society failed to give to this young woman.
“We
do a great disservice to our nation when we fail to honor those
individuals who may not be in the headlines, who may not be from
neighborhoods
that we know but others that are unfamiliar to us. And we owe it to
ourselves, not just to Erika and her family, but to ourselves as a
nation to do better and to make America safer. She deserved better from
the greatest country in the history of the world,
and we, as citizens of that country, deserve better and have an
obligation to do better. And so we will, I hope, leave a legacy for her
in her name that speaks to a safer, better America.
“Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.”
Editor's note: All information in this post was contributed. Click one of the buttons below to share it. Phot is by Shahid Abdul-Karim
