Metro

Friends and family mourn 6-year-old Harlem boy run down on way to school at funeral

Friends and relatives of a 6-year-old Harlem boy killed by a truck while a school crossing guard was missing buried the child today amid community anger and sadness.

With bitterness still bubbling over the tragic but preventable accident, Amar Diarrassouba’s parents stood stoically by his tiny casket as mourners wept in a Harlem mosque.

Distraught dad Sidiki Diarrassouba nodded silently as an imam said prayers, but a family friend said the father had accepted the boy’s fate.

“He is very strong in his faith,” said Darwin Lowe, who works with Diarrassouba. “Other people would have said, `Why did this happen to me?’ But he said, ‘Allah has given me this child. I’m not blaming anyone.’”

Little Amar was killed Thursday morning as he walked to his school near 117th Street and First Avenue, where he was hit by a turning truck shortly before 8 a.m.

A crossing guard assigned to that intersection was not on duty, although sources said she lied about taking a break when in fact she had not been there at all.

The crossing guard, Flavia Roman, was suspended without pay for 30 days over the incident.

Officials are investigating the accident, but Roman has not been charged with a crime.

Amar’s mother, Mehichata, had said Roman was welcome to attend the funeral, but she was not there.

The boy was buried at Mount Prospect Cemetery in Neptune, NJ.

“People are angry, but people are mourning,” said state Sen. Bill Perkins. “Every mother and father who has a child at that school is in turmoil. But for the grace of God, it could have been their child.”