A little angel got her wings.
Amid the heart-rending sobs and peals of despair heard from throughout the Coney Island Gospel Assembly, the 300 anguished mourners gathering to mark the death of little Akira Angelique Johnson Monday held onto one belief: the 10-year-old drowning victim was living up to her middle name.
“Akira didn’t die, she just graduated,” one teenage cousin said to a round of applause as family members spent nearly two hours at the Coney Island Gospel Assembly, 2828 Neptune Avenue, speaking about the P.S. 188 student who loved baseball just as much as she loved singing and dancing.
“We loved her so much, but God needed a new angel,” said grandmother Annie Johnson speaking from the alter behind the small white coffin, next to an oak tag memorial constructed by her classmates. “We had an angel in our midst, but we just didn’t know it.”
Over to the right the altar, a plush teddy bear looked out at the crying mourners, some too inconsolable — Akira’s mother Alma and father Bradley especially — to speak publicly.
Two weeks ago, turbulent waves caused by a series of storm surges swept Akira away from her cousin Tyriek Currie as the two played in the waters off of West 24th Street and the Reigelman Boardwalk.
Upwards of four lifeguards went out to find the little girl, who disappeared under the churning surf.
For several days, search parties flooded the seas looking for Akira, whose body was finally recovered in Brighton Beach last Wednesday.
Wracked with grief, Tyriek, who is also 10, uttered a litany of sobs as he tried to talk about all the fun he and his cousin had together.
“Akira was taken from us far too soon,” said City Councilman Domenic Recchia, who said that Akira’s death teaches us that we “have to watch out for each other.”
“A tragedy like this at any time,” he said. “A child should bury her mother and father. A parent should never bury a child.”
Akira’s death has created a new surge of demands for more lifeguards and better security safeguards in the waters off of Coney Island.
A Parks Department spokesperson said that they are “continuing with their safety plan as mandated,” and that no changes to the plan had been implemented since Akira’s death.
The spokesperson said that the current safety plan comes with well placed signs warning swimmers about strong currents and riptides, which is believed to have caused Akira’s death.
“The lifeguards did everything they could by following the safety plan,” the spokesperson said. “The simmers at the city beaches are safe and continue to be safe because of this plan.”
Yet area city officials said that there’s talk that the Parks Department is creating a system using colored flags or signs to help swimmers identify dangerous conditions.
In the meantime, Recchia is distributing flyers offering safety tips.
In the handouts – provided in English and Russian – beachgoers are told to avoid swimming near rocks and piers and to keep young children within arms reach of an adult when in the water.
“The importance of the flyer is to make people aware and remind them to be safe and have fun while at the beach,” Recchia explained. “If you’re caught in a rip current, stay calm, don’t panic. Float – never swim against the current. Don’t swim near rocks. That’s a big one.”
Although lifeguards are present, parents should protect their children from potentially dangerous situations.
“[Parents] should always stay with young children. If they’re not good swimmers, they should wear flotation devices,” Recchia said.
