“They couldn’t get a pulse. Each one of the people that was there with her was telling different stories.”
When Shanquella Robinson left for her group trip, I’m pretty sure she didn’t think this would happen. I can bet my bottom dollar that the move was to celebrate her friend with their friends then head back to Charlotte, North Carolina to her braiding business, Exquisite Babies. However, when she left to head to the destination-celebration in Mexico for one of the group members’ birthday; whatever expectations she harbored were far from the outcome.
On October 28th, Shanquella and her group arrived at a luxury villa in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. A day later, within 24 hours of her being there, Shanquella was pronounced dead. With the death of their friend, her group then reached out to Shanquella’s parents, Sallamondra and Bernard Robinson, and told them that their daughter passed away due to alcohol poisoning. However, due to someone alerting her that there was fighting happening on the trip, Sallamondra didn’t believe them. According to her ‘I did not believe them because actually before they even got back to Charlotte… someone had already called us and said that someone was fighting her over there’. Since then, Sallamondra has had no issue echoing her doubts where her daughter’s friends are concerned. As told to Good Morning America, Sallamondra said that the day before the autopsy report was released, Robinson’s friends went over to her house and each told her a different account of what happened in Mexico. When the official autopsy was carried out, however, it said that medical doctors were at the scene before 3pm and her death was said to be caused by an injury to her spinal cord and neck. Mexican prosecutors have since labeled her death as “a direct attack, not an accident.” It was also reported that before her unfortunate death, Shanquella suffered a heart attack.
Sallamondra, having heard different stories from her daughter’s friends and the disbelief mounting, then got the FBI involved. “The FBI Charlotte Field Office has opened an investigation in the death of Charlotte resident, Shanquella Robinson in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on or about October 29, 2022. Due to the ongoing investigation, we have no further comment,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Charlotte Observer.
“When the autopsy came back, they said it didn’t have anything to do with alcohol… they said that she had a broken neck and her spine in the back was cracked. She had been beaten.”
The world became aware of Shanquella Robinson when a video showing a naked woman being beaten up in a hotel room by a woman began to surface. On the video, a male voice was heard asking the girl getting beaten on to defend herself “Quella, can you at least fight back?”, to which Shanquella could be heard saying “no”. The video which went viral shows a completely nude Shanquella being aggressively beaten on by a woman who she didn’t fight back but tried to get away from. The unnamed woman continued to punch and kick Robinson and eventually tells her to ‘get up, I’m tired of the ****.’ It begs to imagine why Shanquella didn’t fight back and what transpired between hours before and the fatal encounter. Just hours before her death, Shanquella was seen on video joking with her friends about how long they were taking to get ready. This she did while walking around outside the luxury villa and playfully saying “It don’t take that long to get naked. Where y’all at?” Then moments later, she reenters the villa and walks in on a discussion about swimsuit choices.
Having seen the video and the outrage sparked, the demand for justice grew everyday and still an arrest wasn’t made. Then November 23rd came around, when it was reported that an arrest warrant was issued for one of the friends on the trip. Immediately everyone’s minds went to the woman beating her up, Daejhanae Jackson, however, this person’s identity is being withheld. To ABC News, Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, a prosecutor for the state of Baja California Sur, said “This case is fully clarified, we even have a court order, there is an arrest warrant issued for the crime of femicide to the detriment of the victim and against an alleged perpetrator, a friend of her who is the direct aggressor”… “We are carrying out all the pertinent procedures such as the Interpol alert and the request for extradition to the United States of America. It’s about two Americans, the victim and the culprit.” In Mexico, Shanquella’s death is regarded as a femicide due to the fact that it was the death of a woman. An investigation, per their custom, is carried out into the cause of death including if foul play was involved. Upon hearing the news an elated Shallamondra told ABC News “I feel so good, that’s a good feeling,” Sallamondra Robinson said. “That’s what we have been waiting for, for someone to finally be held accountable and arrested. I just can’t wait for justice to be served.”
In the development of the race for justice for Shanquella Robinson, since the investigation was opened on November 18th, here’s what we’ve gathered:
- Mexican authorities have requested a suspect be extradited from the U.S. to Mexico to face charges of femicide in Robinson’s death. The U.S. and Mexico have a treaty in place from 1978 that allows for this.
- An arrest is yet to be made in the ongoing investigation.
- Sallamondra, mother of Shanquella, reports that the police department is remaining tight-lipped about the investigation. A spokesperson for the FBI’s Charlotte Office told Fox News Digital on Tuesday (Dec 6) that the “investigation is ongoing” and the bureau “has no further comment.”
- There’s no word on if a U.S arrest warrant had been issued
- The name of the suspect is being withheld. Mexican authorities haven’t released the name on the official arrest warrant
On November 17th, Shanquella’s body was returned to her family in Charlotte, North Carolina. Two days later, on the 19th, her funeral was held at the Macedonia Baptist Church on Hatteras Ave. Charlotte, NC. In order to finance the funeral a GoFundMe was set up. With the initial goal of $385, 000 almost surpassed as at the time of writing this piece it sits north of $382K and contributing to that was NBA player Kyrie Irving who gave a whopping total of $65, 000. Currently as it stands, Shanquella’s attacker can face multiple charges.
