CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Community members by the hundreds gathered inside an Uptown Charlotte church. It was full of sober moments with an outpouring of grief, along with calls for justice tied to a young woman's death abroad.
Those who packed the sanctuary at Little Rock AME Zion Church honored the life of Shanquella Robinson, a 25-year-old Charlotte woman who died on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with friends in Oct. 2022.
“I wish I could yell at the top of my lungs, and punch my first through a table," Mayor Pro-Tem Braxton Winston said. "Like you, we are saddened a bright young life was tragically ended.”
Unanswered questions have left the family and community members heartbroken, from family and neighbors to community leaders.
"I am sad because a beautiful soul was taken," Mecklenburg County Commissioner-at-Large Pat Cotham said.
In the days leading up to Saturday's gathering, Robinson's family said they wanted to see punishment for whoever was responsible for her death.
Mexican authorities recently confirmed they had an arrest warrant for an unnamed woman who was on the trip with Robinson, charging the woman with femicide. That development was shared after a disturbing video circulated online. Robinson's own father confirmed it showed her being beaten, likely sometime during the trip.
WCNC Charlotte has chosen not to share the video out of respect for Robinson, and because the video may be disturbing for some viewers.
According to the official death certificate, Robinson's cause of death involved a severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation. Atlas luxation is the instability in the uppermost neck vertebra.
Contact Austin Walker at awalker@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.