Holding On To Faith Amid Tragedy

Rebecca Ramnarine

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, BROOKLYN, NY, Tues. May 6, 2014: A Guyanese-born, Queens-based couple is holding on to faith to sustain them as they grapple with the horrific death of their 9-year-old daughter and news that the man who allegedly was behind the wheel of the car that took her life did not have a driver’s license.

Richard and Abiola Ramnarine are still trying to come to grips with the death of their daughter Rebecca Ramnarine of St. Albans, Queens, NY.

New York City police say Kenneth Palache, 62, of Huntington, Long Island, is the man who took her life. Palache has been arrested on charges of criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and operating a motor vehicle without a license. He was arraigned late last night.

Rebecca and her family had left church in Canarsie, Brooklyn Sunday afternoon and were heading to dinner. The family split into different cars with the fourth-grader choosing to ride in the back seat of a family friend’s Hyundai Elantra.

At around 5 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue N and Remsen Avenue, police say Palache slammed into the car with his Honda Odyssey after fleeing the scene of an earlier accident with a Toyota Siena.

Richard and Abiola Ramnarine.

Area residents say the multi-car collision was one of the worst accidents they’ve ever seen, describing the impact as a loud roar like thunder.

The jaws of life had to be used to free the little girl from the wreckage. She was later declared dead at a Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn.

“We went to the hospital and they called me into the room and told me my baby was dead,” Abiola Ramnarine reminisced amid tears Monday afternoon.

But while their grief is palpable, their faith is strong. “I’m still not angry, because anger is not going to bring my daughter back,” her father, Richard Ramnarine, told CBS 2′s Weijia Jiang about the man who took his baby girl away. Rebecca is survived by three siblings and her parents who are all struggling with the loss.

Last night the family placed violet flowers at the scene of the accident and sent up white balloons into the sky for a little girl who is gone too soon but who her mother is now convinced, is an “angel” watching over them.