She can smile again.
Brave little Mikayla Capers beamed Saturday in her first public appearance since surviving 16 stab wounds she suffered in a brutal Brooklyn elevator attack that killed her young pal.
“I’m feeling good because you all supported me,” said the bubbly 7-year-old, in a pretty pink and purple dress and sandals, as she sat with relatives at Al Sharpton’s weekly National Action Network meeting in Harlem.
At one point she raised her hands over her head and cupped them together in the shape of a heart.
“It’s for P.J.,” she said, referring to her 6-year-old pal, P.J. Avitto, who was killed in the June 1 attack.
er family, which has asked for help relocating, is hoping to get Mikayla settled into a new home by Sept. 1 so she can start the third grade in housing away from the Boulevard Houses project — the scene of the carnage.
“The most exciting thing about it is that I get to see the rest of my classmates again,” Mikayla said when asked about the new school year.
The child, with two visible scars on her chest, bounced to music, smiled and hugged great-grandmother Regenia Trevathan just a day after her alleged attacker was found mentally fit to stand trial.
Mikayla and P.J. were riding the elevator of their East New York building on their way to get ice cream when they encountered accused “Brooklyn Ripper” Daniel St. Hubert (inset). He is also accused of fatally stabbing 18-year-old Tanaya Grant-Copeland a few days earlier.
Mikayla has been living with her great-grandmother in a different part of Brooklyn because she can no longer stand being at the apartment complex where the horror unfolded.
“She has not been back in that elevator . . . She cannot stay there 24/7. It’s a constant reminder,” Trevathan said. The family has struggled to help Mikayla, who is in psychotherapy, cope with the psychological impact of the attack.
“My electric bill was overwhelmingly high because every light had to remain on. They call it post-traumatic stress. We don’t know the long-term effects but we tried to keep her busy,” Trevathan said.
The girl has asked to go put flowers on P.J.’s grave, forcing Trevathan to explain some very grown-up things.
“One of the hardest things I had to explain to her that she doesn’t understand is cremation,” Trevathan said.
The Capers family is working with city and federal housing officials in hopes of securing a four-bedroom apartment.
“They need new furniture and everything like that. We haven’t got anything,” Trevathan said.
NYCHA, citing privacy concerns, declined to comment.