NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Hollywood legend Robert De Niro stood by his daughter Drena on Saturday, July 8, as the casket containing the corpse of his 19-year-old grandson, was carried out of an Upper East Side funeral home. Drena De Niro’s son Leandro breathed his last on July 1 when he was found in a lifeless state inside a Lower Manhattan apartment with a white, powdery substance and drug paraphernalia nearby, police claimed.
A small group of grievers, dressed in all black, started to arrive around 9 am at the Frank E Campbell Funeral Home, with the iconic actor later turning up in a black SUV. The 79-year-old wore a black suit and arrived after a priest and was ushered inside the funeral home by security. Drena and Leandro’s father, graffiti artist Carlos Rodriguez, followed.
Drena and Carlos arrived together
The devastated parents arrived together in a separate black SUV but had to wait for 10 minutes before they were escorted in. Another 15 mourners approximately joined them. The security put cones at the entrance to East 82nd Street facility following a short service. Six pallbearers who wear wearing black suits and white gloves, carried the casket out the front door and placed it in the hearse.
De Niro stood next to Drena
De Niro wrapped his arm around Drena as he tried to comfort her in this moment of hardship while standing next to his daughter. He then joined the parents in one of the SUVs and drove off. According to New York Post, sources said that the family was believed to be holding a graveside ceremony for Leandro at a cemetery in Valhalla, NY, where the 'Taxi Driver' actor's father is buried. One mourner looked at another at one point and asked, “How are you doing?” before quickly adding, "Actually, I don’t know why I keep asking everyone that — no one is doing well.” De Niro’s friends and former co-stars Christopher Walken, Michael Imperioli, and Harvey Keitel were also present.
Leonardo possibly died of an overdose
Leandro's death is being investigated as a possible overdose. His mother has however claimed that someone intentionally sold her son the drugs, even though the toxicology report is still pending. “Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him,” Drena, 51, wrote on Instagram Tuesday. “So for all these people still f–king around selling and buying this s–t, my son is gone forever,” she added.
