The parents of a 9-year-old girl killed by a hit-and-run driver in Brooklyn on Sunday suffered another blow this week when shameless scammers used their dead daughter’s name to set up a fake charity website to collect money in their name, according to a new report.
“Why would you take my pain and suffering and try to get some monetary gain out of it?” the girl’s father, Richard Ramnarine, told WCBS-2 news.
Rebecca Ramnarine had just left church when a minivan fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run in Canarsie plowed into the van she was riding in at about 5 p.m.
Minivan driver Kenneth Palache, 62, of Huntington, LI, was arrested and faces charges including criminally negligent homicide.
The scammers set up a page on the fund-raising website Gofundme.com claiming to be the Queens girl’s aunt and uncle and saying they needed to raise $10,000 for her funeral, CBS reported.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office shut down the fake site after tracing it to a California bank account — and people who were tricked will get their money back, the station said.
A funeral for Ramnarine will be held Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at the Restoration Temple Assembly of God Church on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. The viewing will be begin at 4 p.m. and the service starts at 6:30 p.m.