Slain Zymere Perkins remembered at NYC funeral funded by City
The devastated family of fatally-battered Zymere Perkins gave the 6-year-old an emotional and tear-filled funeral Friday in Brooklyn.
Zymere’s tiny body, dressed in a white suit and bow tie, lay in an open white satin-lined ivory casket with a white veil over the open top half.
A white teddy bear, holding a red cushion heart, was propped by the boy’s head and three massive floral arrangements surrounded the altar below the casket.
His mother, Geraldine Perkins, 26, asserted her innocence in a jailhouse interview on Rikers Island, where she’s being held for endangering the welfare of a child.
De Blasio again refuses to give details on Zymere Perkins’ death
Mourners attend a funeral service for Zymere Perkins in Brooklyn.
(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
She wasn’t missed by the more than 200 mourners who packed into the pews at the Church of the Open Door in Fort Greene.
A family friend exploded with emotion at the sight of the child.
“Zymere, my baby. I’m not leaving him. I want my baby,” she wailed. “Why did they do this to him? He was an in innocent baby. Lord have mercy. He was life.”
Zymere Perkins died after being found covered in bruises in Harlem, New York on Sept. 26, 2016.
(Facebook)
“I don’t care if she was a friend of mine,” she cried. “Nobody helped him. I hope she gets life.”
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The little boy died Sept. 26 after his mother rushed him to a hospital — but not soon enough to save Zymere, who was allegedly beaten with a wooden broomstick by Geraldine Perkins’ boyfriend.
The musclebound Rysheim Smith, 42, remains jailed at the Manhattan Detention Center for the fatal beating.
Geraldine Perkins is seen in Manhattan Criminal Court during her arraignment Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016, on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child in the death of her 6-year-old son, Zymere Perkins, who showed signs of long-term abuse.
(Robert Mecea/Pool) 
Rysheim Smith is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on September 28, 2016 in New York. He was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after the death of girlfriend Geraldine Perkins’ 6-year old son Zymere.
(Alec Tabak for New York Daily News)
Geraldine Perkins, Zymere’s mother, blames her son’s death on her musclebound-boyfriend Rysheim Smith.
Perkins has already blamed Smith for the boy’s death, admitting that she watched the vicious attack without intervening to protect her son.
Smith then hung the boy’s limp body by his T-shirt from a hook on their bathroom door.
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Perkins told cops she placed her son on a bed and sat down to rest and read the bible before getting help.
Mourners say the slain 6-year-old boy “was known to be articulate, playful and loving.”
(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
After Zymere’s death, it was revealed that his mother had been investigated five times for various child abuse allegations.
More than $9,000 was raised by cops, the victims compensation board and the nonprofit Safe Horizons to help pay for the funeral.
A program handed out by white-clad ushers at the service Friday said relatives had given the innocent child the nickname “Zyzy.”
City investigating tragic death of 6-year-old Zymere Perkins
Mourners leave a funeral service for Zymere Perkins at the Church of the Open Door on Gold Street in Brooklyn on Friday, October 7, 2016.
(Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News) 
A hearse prepares to bear the 6-year-old boy’s coffin from the Church of the Open Door in Brooklyn following Zymere Perkins’ funeral service.
(Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Weeping women exit the Church of the Open Door in Brooklyn after an emotional funeral service for 6-year-old Zymere Perkins.
“He was known to be articulate, playful and loving,” the program read. “Zymere had a smile that would captivate anyone’s heart.”
The Rev. Mark Taylor, who gave the eulogy, said the family had once brought the boy to the church and asked him to pray for Zymere.
“I put my hands on him and he squirmed. I didn’t know anything was wrong. I wonder if I could have done more,” Rev. Taylor said.
“Where was the city of New York?” he added sorrowfully.
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