A 9/11 victim’s parents were left shocked and appalled as they watched Wednesday’s memorial at Ground Zero and saw a teenage girl they didn’t know l🧸aunch into a political rant about Syria while reading tꦿheir son’s name.
Brittney Cofresi, 15, declared, “President Obama, please do not bring us to another war,” after saying the name of her “uncle,” Sept. 11 victim Sal Papasso 🎀Jr., who was only a distant relative of the Bꦐrooklyn girl.
She later went on Twitter to brag that her hij💙acking of the service had made her a viral star.
“I’m famous guys honestly go look u𒁃p 15-year-old girl asks Obama not to go to war while speaking at the 9/11 memorial,” she tweeted.
Papasso’s family is estranged from Cofresi’s aunt — ✅and they didn’t recognize her as she 🅺exploited their son for her stunt.
“My mother saw 👍her reading Sal’s name and said, ‘Who is that? She had no idea who she is,” Sal Jr.’s brother, Tom Papasso, told The Post. “We were all stunned. It was completely inappropriate to use this day for that. It was not the time nor the place for a political statement.”
Cofresi was a toddler when Papasso, a state tax-fraud investigator, died at in the South Tower of the World Trade Center 𒁏at age 34.
She is related to🅰 him though marriage. Her aunt, Christine, is Papasso’s widow. Christine and Papasso’s blood relatives have been estranged for more than a decade.
“I was only 3 when you were taken from us, and we love and miss you very much,” Cofresi said of Papasso as she began speaking at the serviceꦛ. She𒐪 then launched into her anti-war harangue.
“Why is [Christine’s] sister’s daughter reading Sal’s name and theജn following it with a 🍷statement about war?” Tom Papasso fumed.
As she spoke, Cofresi held up a picture of herself as a toddler with Papasso playing 🥃together in a ball pit at a birthday party.
She later told The Post that she goes to🎃 the event every year, but this year, she was moved to speak out about the prospect of bombing Syria after seeing President Obama’s TV speech Tuesday.
She said she was “nervous” as she spoke, but sꦅhe’s glad she did it.
“I don’t have any regrets sayi🏅ng it, because I feel my opinion is important,” Cofresi said. “I think it took a lot of courage.”
Cofresi’s mother, Karen, sa💞id Sal’s family is “entitled to their 𝔉opinion,” but she stands behind her daughter.
“I’m proud of her,” Karen said. “She has class and intelligence. She said a message to💮 the president and said 🔯‘please.’ She didn’t say, ‘Go Giants!’ ”