Families, Friends Say Goodbye To Teen Killed By Gunfire

PORT RICHEY – A 14-year-old Chasco Middle School student who loved to make those around him laugh was remembered with tears Saturday, March 3, during a Celebration of Life service at the Salvation Army Corps and Community Center in Port Richey.

Friends, teachers and neighbors gathered to say goodbye to eighth-grader Christian Robinson while Pasco County Sheriff’s detectives continue to search for his killer.

Investigators still have no clue why the outgoing, well-liked teen was shot in the head while sitting in a parked car in front of 6353 Ridge Crest Drive in Port Richey at about 5:55 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

Robinson, who had gotten into a friend’s car to ride with him to pick up another friend, was shot in the back of his head. The shooter, described as a white man with a pierced eyebrow driving an older-model black Mazda four-door sedan with black tire rims and no hubcaps, fired several shots at the car.

His mother, Tanya Robinson, said she saw her son just minutes before the shooting.

"I came home from work at about 5:15 p.m. that day," she said. "My son was sitting outside in the chair he always sat in, playing with his puppy like usual."

Tanya Robinson then left to attend another son’s basketball game. Forty-five minutes later, Christian Robinson was being airlifted to the trauma center at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.

“I came home from the game at about 9:30 p.m. and found out that my son was fighting for his life,” she said.

He continued fighting for three days before dying on Saturday, Feb. 17.

Robinson said she takes comfort in knowing her son lives on in the lives of those he saved with his donated organs.

Five people in need of transplants received his organs including a desperately ill 2-year-old girl who needed a kidney and a pancreas, she said.

“He would have wanted that,” she said. “He was so amazing. Christian was such a beautiful soul – caring, calm.”

Robinson said she has questions she knows will never be answered.

“Why my son? Why a 14-year-old boy who will never get to shave his face or go to his school formals?” she asked.

But there are some questions she said she’s determined to have answered including who killed her son and why.

“Please, I'm stressing to the public if they know anything, please call the detective on the case,” she said.

The sheriff’s office has released a composite sketch of the shooter along with surveillance video of the shooter’s car.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office Crime Tips Line at 1-800-706-2488 or email tips@pascosheriff.org, reference case number 18-6447. Or, to be eligible for a $3,000 reward, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477).

A Go Fund Me website page has been set up to collect donations for the teen’s medical and funeral expenses.

Images via Tanya Robinson, Pasco Sheriff