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by Pablo Guzmán
NEW YORK (AP) ― Hours after teary family, friends and total strangers delivered a final farewell to a 7-year-old Brooklyn girl allegedly killed by her stepfather, city officials announced a massive shakeup Wednesday at the agency that missed the obvious warning signs of her brutal death.

A half-dozen employees at the Administration for Children's Services were suspended or otherwise disciplined over allegedly inadequate responses to reports of problems with Nixzmary Brown, who died in a beating allegedly inflicted over a missing container of yogurt.

Earlier Wednesday, the sounds of weeping and a mournful organ filled St. Mary's Church on Manhattan's Lower East Side as the little girl's body lay inside a white coffin draped with a white and red cloth before an altar still decorated with Christmas poinsettias.

"We have a reminder by the death of this child that the violence continues," said the Rev. Robert O'Neil, the church pastor. "She is a witness for us."

The church once served as a shelter for some of the children abandoned on city streets. It was packed to capacity, with the crowd spilling onto the street outside and police closing down a two-block stretch of Grand Street.

O'Neil told the crowd that the worst was now past for the girl: "Nixzmary is now surrounded by love, beyond the touch of evil."

One of the dead girl's grandmothers was in attendance, along with an assortment of her relatives and classmates. The head of the city's schools, Joel Klein, was in the crowd, as were many people who only learned about the little girl after her death.

Devorah Day, 48, stood with tears streaming down her face on the church steps after the service. "I was an abused child, too," she said in explaining her attendance.

Lucy Rivera, 60, also had never met Nixzmary or her family but felt obliged to attend the service in her Manhattan neighborhood. Rivera blamed the little girl's mother for failing to protect the child.

"The first person who should have defended her was the mother," she said. "She was the first person who failed her."

Nixzmary was at home on Jan. 10 when her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, went to the store and bought yogurt. Later, when one of the yogurts was missing, Rodriguez allegedly flew into a rage and blamed the 7-year-old.

According to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, the stepfather banished the girl to a rodent-infested room with a litter box filled with feces and urine, a wooden chair tied to a radiator and dirty mattresses.

Rodriguez later beat Nixzmary, stripped her naked and dragged her into the bathroom, where he began running cold water in the tub and dunked her head beneath the water, Hynes alleged. The girl was dead the next morning.

Rodriguez and the girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, were indicted Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder, child endangerment and assault. The mother allegedly ignored the loud thumping noises and cries for help that came from the bathroom.

Shortly after the funeral, the head of the city ACS announced a shake up at the department, including the immediate suspension of two supervisors and one child protective worker. Three other employees were disciplined and moved under new supervision, said ACS chief John Mattingly.

"The staff made poor investigative decisions, and gave inadequate attention to clear warning signs," Mattingly told a news conference. The workers were cited for allegedly mishandling a pair of cases involving the little girl: a May 2005 report that she had missed 47 school days, and a December 2005 report of physical abuse.

He raised the possibility of firings or additional suspensions tied to the Brown case.

Mattingly said his agency also invited the city Department of Investigation to conduct an independent probe of the Brown case to determine exactly what had gone wrong. And he announced a reshuffling of some top-level ACS aides.

(© 2006 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)