AROUND THE WAY HARLEM GIRL GOES FROM PREP SCHOOL TO PRISON! SHE WAS RUNNING GUNS FOR THE GANG!

Afrika Owes was a star in her Harlem neighborhood, a smart girl who earned her way into an exclusive prep school.

Her future was filled with promise - until earlier this week, when the promising teen got caught up with a group of Harlem gangbangers and swept up by police.

The stunning arrest - a shock to many who knew her - left neighbors and friends wondering how 17-year-old Afrika went from prep school to prison.

"The whole community knows her," said Rev. Vernon Williams, who works with kids in Harlem. "She was a girl of high promise."

"She's a good girl," said her mother, Karen Owes. "This may be what's happening right now, but we're going to get through this."

Her mother described her as "Harlem's darling" - and apparently she was.

"She's well-liked and well-loved," her mother said.

The 51-page indictment told a different tale, portraying Afrika as an urban Bonnie to boyfriend Jaquan (Jay Cash) Layne's drug-dealing Clyde.

In a December 2009 telephone conversation, Layne allegedly provided Owes with these chilling, deadly instructions: "If s--- gets crazy, let it go, let it go. Make sure head shots only."

Afrika grew up on 138th St., across the street from the storied Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Her apartment is also a block from the home of the "137th Street Crew" - young men Karen Owes said Afrika has known all her life.

Afrika's mother said her daughter sang in the Abyssinian Baptist Church junior choir and was a member of the youth ministry.

She attended basketball camp and won a poetry contest. She attended the prestigious Deerfield Academy, a fancy college prep school in Massachusetts.

But somewhere along the line, "Harlem's darling" veered off the right track.

She was among 14 gangbangers arrested Wednesday and accused of terrorizing the neighborhood.

They sold crack cocaine and recruited young girls, like Afrika, to tote guns. Ringleaders ran the drug operation from Rikers Island - where Afrika is today.

Prosecutors charged Afrika routinely carried her boyfriend's loaded handgun, even complaining at one point that it was "too heavy."

A phone conversation between the teen and Layne indicated she would be carrying a loaded weapon on the night of Dec. 19, 2009.

In an earlier conversation, prosecutors said, Jay Cash reminded his girlfriend that she never complained about accepting gifts purchased with drug money.

Karen Owes says she doesn't know if her daughter was in a gang.

"I'm involved, not too much gets by me. I'm on Facebook," she said, conceding, though that things can happen even with the most attentive parent.

"The parent can be right there in the room. It's incredible that it got by me. I didn't see any of that coming."

She insisted the 13 young men arrested with Afrika are "not a gang," just boys from the neighborhood.

"She grew up around here. She's an around the way girl," she said, referencing LL Cool J's 1990 hit.

Long before Afrika Owes ended up on Rikers Island, she was a girl with "an insatiable curiosity ... a scholar. She was precocious and as a mother we nurture that," Karen Owes said.

Afrika graduated 8th grade from KIPP STAR College Prep Charter School in Harlem, Karen Owes said.

"She graduated valedictorian," she said. "She gave an amazing speech."

She wanted her daughter to have a "college experience" where she would "learn independence." So with the help of a KIPP counselor, Karen Owes had her apply to Deerfield.

"They had a very good library," Karen Owes said. "I looked at what resources the school had."

She was accepted - and attended the $43,800-a-year school on a scholarship, her mother said.

David Thiel, a spokesman for Deerfield, remembered Afrika Owes as a "smart girl with fantastic credentials."

"We were all very surprised," he said of her arrest.

She left the school toward the end of her sophomore year in May 2010.

"She withdrew while there was a disciplinary investigation underway," he said, declining to elaborate.

Thiel described her troubles at the school as "run of the mill," involving issues related to academics or personal integrity.

Karen Owes declined to say why her daughter left Deerfield, but she said Afrika had to "remove herself for at least a year."

In order to get into Deerfield, Afrika had to go through a rigorous application process, similar to applying for college. The boarding school, about three hours from the city, accepts just 14% of its applicants.

It has just over 600 students, and "you can see cows from most of the academic buildings," Thiel said.

Things turned bad after Afrika left that rural community and returned to the streets of Harlem.

When Karen Owes visited her daughter Friday on Rikers, she said the teenager just wanted to focus on finishing high school.

"I want her free," she said. "I just want to get her out of that environment.

"(But)every experience we go through is an enriching experience. I feel confident life lessons have been learned."


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