“He wasn’t just my brother-in-law–he was inspiring to me, to see the changes that he made,” said Shawn Walters when speaking about the late Yoseph Robinson. “Usually, brother-in-laws you only see on family occasions, but we were way beyond that level. We had a bond that people couldn’t understand.”
Robinson was shot and killed last Thursday in the Midwood section of Brooklyn as he minded the kosher liquor store owned by his close friend Benjy Ovitsh. According to his girlfriend, Lahavah Wallace, his last words were, “Tell my daughter that I love her.”
A rainy Monday evening at the Shomrei Hadas Chapel in Borough Park was the setting for services honoring the life of Robinson. Orthodox Jews and non-Jews, whites and Blacks all showed up (to the tune of approximately 1,000 individuals) to pay respects to an individual who touched many lives and planned on touching more in the future. While Robinson wasn’t able to see his vision through, the impact he left amongst friends, family, neighbors and strangers appears to be endless.
Even though the pain of his absence is very real, members of Robinson’s family from both sides wanted to celebrate his life and discuss Robinson’s real legacy to the world with the AmNews. They also wanted to refute some of the things written about his life in the mainstream press.
“The Daily News reported the story when he first got shot on Thursday,” said Walters while sitting in his Brooklyn home. “By Friday morning, I was reading the Daily News and they stated that my brother came from California addicted to drugs. That’s incorrect. He was never on drugs. He was never addicted to drugs. Second thing is, Kevin was never in a gang. And he definitely wasn’t a petty criminal. He wasn’t a nuisance to society.”
The narrative in the mainstream press of Robinson’s life focused more on his past involvement in “street life” and having a record label deal with Universal. Walters saw a life of sacrifice, courage, generosity, kindness and loyalty.
“When I had problems in my life with my wife, who is his sister, he would still stand by my side and say, ‘I’ll talk to her tomorrow,’” said Walters. “He was never a judgmental person. He never took sides. He put others before himself.”
Ovitsh agreed. “In terms of who he was, he was beautiful, honest man of total integrity,” he said. Ovitsh then recalled a recent situation where an elderly customer at the store left an envelope of cash. “He could’ve just kept it,” he said. “No one would’ve said anything. Most of my friends would’ve said, ‘Ooh, cash.’ A day or two later, this elderly guy came back and was moved to tears. It was another example of the kind of person he was.”
Robinson lived what many consider to be the American dream. He emigrated from Jamaica as a pre-teen, started humbly, went through ups and downs, and eventually worked toward a life of money, possible fame and a certain definition of happiness. He eventually gave that up to join the Jewish faith. He also wanted to unite the Jewish and Black cultures in Brooklyn, which have a long-reported legacy of divisiveness and tension. Ovitsh felt that Robinson was well on his way to accomplishing his goal.
“He had a fantastic rapport with people in the community,” said Ovitsh. “With Jews in the community and with minorities in the community, he really was able to bridge those two worlds. And he was very successful.
“He spoke at assisted living facilities,” Ovitsh continued. “He spoke at various synagogues in the neighborhood. He tried to impact kids at risk, kids that had problems, kids that lost their path in life.”
According to Ovitsh’s wife, Rikki, Robinson remained swollen with pride when it came to his heritage–both of them. “He was very, very proud of not only being a Jewish man, but he was a proud Jamaican man,” she said. “He was very proud of all sides of his heritage. He didn’t see it as a conflict and he didn’t want it to be conflicting. He wanted people to know that you don’t have to be one or the other. He used to say this is my skin color, this is just a description. I’m proud of my heritage and I’m proud of where I came from. He wanted to start the communities talking.”
“He was hoping to be the voice that can bring the two cultures together,” she said.
Those cultures could be found, side by side, at the Shomrei Hadas Chapel, celebrating a man with one of the more interesting and intriguing life trajectories. “At that moment when we went through the service,” said childhood friend Donnatella Craig, “I don’t believe that there was Black, white, Indian, Catholic, Baptist [or] Jew. It was just the belief and the love that was directed towards the same person. I’m totally moved by the celebration of who he was.”
The New York Police Department arrested a suspect in relation to Robinson’s murder on Tuesday. According to sources within the NYPD, the suspect attempted to escape police custody at the 70th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn while being questioned. As of press time, the suspect wasn’t officially charged with the murder. He is, however, wanted for an unrelated assault and could face charges in that case.
“We leave them to justice,” said Walters. “There are those who are upset, but we don’t want hatred. He [Robinson] wouldn’t want to be remembered like that. He would also want me to tell the young man–as much as I’m angry with him–that he forgives him. And I wanted the family of the man, if they catch him, to know that we as a family are hurting, but we don’t blame them and we forgive them as well.”