‘All I want is justice’: Shanquella Robinson’s father speaks on faith, grief and the Cabo 6
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Shanquella Robinson Death Investigation
The 25-year-old Charlotte woman died while on vacation in Cabo, Mexico.
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When Bernard Robinson opened the doors to the funeral home after his daughter arrived from Mexico, he began to weep. When he opened the casket and saw Shanquella Robinson’s face, he knew she didn’t die of alcohol poisoning or natural causes.
Shanquella Robinson had a large bump on her head, and a swollen, cut lip, Robinson said in an interview Saturday evening.
Shanquella went on a trip to Cabo, Mexico, with six people on Oct. 28 and she died the next day. The people she traveled with returned home as passengers on an airplane.
Robinson had to work with Mexican officials, fill out extensive paperwork, and pay hefty fees to have his daughter’s body sent back to her family.
Robinson’s companions told her family she died of alcohol poisoning, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. However, police reports and her death certificate tell a different story. Now, Mexican authorities have issued an arrest warrant for one of her traveling companions, the FBI is investigating, and her story has gone viral.
“When I saw in that casket, and I saw the knot, (...) the cut on her lip, I know for a fact that they did some bodily harm to her,” Robinson said.
Robinson said he wants the Mexican authorities to deal justice to those he refers to as the “Cabo 6.”
“All I want is justice,” Robinson said. “I just want the Mexican authorities, the embassy, to do the right thing, make it right. Because they came over there on your soil and did what they did and came back here.”
Rally for Shanquella
Robinson is a man of faith, and raised his daughter to be the same way. As he spoke at a rally for Shanquella at Charlotte’s Little Rock AME Zion Church on Saturday, he said God will provide justice to his family.
God is already answering his prayers and working toward justice, Robinson said. As he continued to pray about his daughter’s death, more things in her case came to light, he said.
“God just started moving as I started praying,” Robinson said. “Everybody in the nation, everybody started taking (heed of) the story and started caring, the video got out (...) and look where we are now.”
In due time, there will be justice, Robinson said. But that time is up to God.
If there is one thing he could tell the Cabo 6, it would be that she had a father and people who loved her.
“She had a lot of folks here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and all around, all the friends that she knew loved her unconditionally,” Robinson said.
Charlotte rallies around Robinson family
Nearly 200 Charlotte community members, activists, and clergy crowded into the Little Rock AME Zion Church on Saturday to demand justice for the family.
Speakers told Robinson’s mother, grandmother, sister and father that Charlotte is here for them, and that justice would be served.
Quilla Long, Robinson’s sister, said earlier this week at a press conference ahead of the rally, justice for the family looks like each of the six other travelers being arrested, and extradited to Mexico.
This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 9:39 PM with the headline "‘All I want is justice’: Shanquella Robinson’s father speaks on faith, grief and the Cabo 6."
