WestConn Student Pleads Not Guilty in Hit and Run Accident

Eugene Robinson pleaded not guilty to evading responsibility in Danbury Superior Court to the hit and run death of Dong Lin on White Street in November, the News Times reported Thursday.

Robinson's Attorney David Moraghan said Robinson is blameless in this accident. Robinson is free on $10,000 bond and is scheduled to return to court on March 7, the News-Times reported.

Dong Lin's Brookfield family spoke to Brookfield Patch Editor Aaron Boyd in an exclusive interview quoted below.

{Dong had lived in Brookfield with his family — mother, father and six-year-old sister — for over 14 years, working with his parents, aunt, uncle and cousins at the family restaurant, Main Moon near Four Corners on Federal Road.

“He was a very nice kid who loved his family,” cousin Angie Zheng said during an interview with the family earlier this week. “He was always working at the restaurant or helping watch his little sister when he wasn’t at school. He was a quiet guy — nice and humble.”

Dong worked part-time at the restaurant to pay for classes and was thinking of majoring in business, though he had yet to choose a degree program.

“He was taking classes in business but had not decided on a major; he was going to decide what kind of business after he got out of college,” said his mother, Qiu. Though when he was young his “dream was to find dinosaurs,” she said.

“He didn’t drink, smoke or anything like that,” she said, he stayed home to watch his sister while his parents worked, and enjoyed playing games online.

The family has been paralyzed by their loss, with Qiu, 41, unable to go to work through the pain.

“My mother has had to take over for her permanently,” said Zheng, who helped translate during the interview. “She’s [Qiu] not physically, mentally able to work.”}