A 17-year-old girl fatally shot by a friend while they played with a gun in a Queens home was a passionate advocate against gun violence — and once spoke out on the issue at her school hoping to raise awareness, her mother told the Daily News.
“She was just the sunlight to every cloud. My nickname for her was sugar, and she was just as sweet as it,” said Krystle Barkley, whose daughter Deaza Barkley was killed Feb. 15. “She wanted to always find the good in people, believing that everybody could be saved.”
Deaza and her 16-year-old friend were handling the gun inside the boy’s grandfather’s home on Clover Place near Foothill Ave. in Holliswood around 5:15 p.m. when the firearm went off, striking Deaza in the head, officials said.
Medics rushed her to Jamaica Hospital, but she could not be saved. The boy, whose name has not been released due to his age, is now facing charges of manslaughter and weapons possession.
Before her death, Deaza, who grew up in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant before recently moving to East New York, was committed to raising awareness about gun violence and advocating for change in her community.
Courtesy of Krystle Barkley
Deaza Barkley gives a presentation about gun violence at her school. (Courtesy of Krystle Barkley)
“It was what she wanted to change,” explained Barkley. “It was just to make her community a better place. That’s just the type of person she was.”
Barkley remembered her daughter as hopeful and optimistic, and believed that she had the ability to change her community for the better.
“She just wanted to always see the good in everything,” Barkley said. “She wanted her community where she lived and her brother was growing up to have a better opportunity.”
“She wanted to believe that the community was not as bad as it was dictated to be,” she added. “She wanted to believe that it was still good.”
Deaza would have graduated from high school in the spring and was deciding between heading off to college or joining the Air Force.
“She had become more fascinated with the Air Force because she wanted to travel,” Krystle said. “She was just open to any adventure that the world brought her.”
Courtesy of Krystle Barkley
Deaza Barkley would have graduated from high school this year. (Courtesy of Krystle Barkley)
The slain teen had a younger brother and older sister, who was unable to walk at her high school graduation due to the pandemic.
“She always said, ‘I’m doing this for my parents, and I’m walking across the stage for my sister,’” Barkley recalled.
The heartbroken mother remembered Deaza and her siblings as part of their “very tight” family, often bonding over card games or movie nights.
“She loved music, she loved dancing,” said Barkley. “She was really big and interested in her dad teaching her how to DJ. She loves writing, taking adventures and exploring.”
“Everyone says the same thing: she brought a smile to everyone’s face,” she added. “You could not be around her and not laugh. She was bubbly.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Deaza Barkley, 17, was fatally shot inside a residence on Clover Place in Holliswood, Queens. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Following an arraignment in Queens Criminal Court last week, the teen suspect was held without bail.
“I just want justice for my baby,” Barkley said. “How did my baby die to the same thing she was trying to raise awareness on?”
