On March 9th, 2013 May 6th, 2012 police officers rolled up on Kimani Gray, age 16, Alan Blueford, age 18 and his friends, out walking on the streets of Flatbush, Brooklyn East Oakland after attending his sister’s sweet 16 party after watching a prize fight at a friend’s house.
Targeted because of their race, gender and age, the police executed an unconstitutional ‘Stop & Frisk’ on the group, at which point Kimani Alan ran, only to be shot down by an officer who gave chase. After being shot at least once, Kimani’s Alan’s last words before the fatal bullets were fired were “Please don’t let me die!” “I didn’t do anything!”.
The police officer who fired is reported to have said, after the fact, “Oh shit!” “I thought he had a gun!”.
Questions as to whether the victim actually possessed a gun – or whether the gun was planted – remain unanswered, and the truth will probably never be known, given the record NYPD OPD has for planting evidence. What we do know is that the gun was never fired and that “reaching for his waistband” was, as is often the case, one of the primary reasons given by the officers for the shooting.
Stop, Frisk & Assault, Brooklyn, 3/13/13
Police were quick to cast aspersions on the victim. NYPD OPD quickly noted that Kimani “had a criminal record, which involved charges for breaking into a car and possession of stolen property” and had involvement with a gang (only the former being even partially true, though blow up all out of proportion) that Alan was on probation, involved in a ‘drug deal’ just before the shooting, and was involved in a ‘gun battle’ with the policeman who shot him. (Only the former was not a flat-out lie). In any case the officers who stopped and killed the young man had no information about him.
Of course the police never cast aspersions on their own, but it turns out that the officers officer who shot Kimani Alan have been involved in multiple cases of civil rights violations was alleged to have tortured someone in jail while employed by NYPD and was cited by an internal affairs investigation as having refused to call for medical treatment for his victim.
Please join the Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition on March 21st, at 5:00 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza in downtown Oakland, where a solidarity rally will be held in support of Kimani ‘Kiki’ Gray’s family and to stand with those Brooklyn protesters who have endured a week of NYPD’s assaults on their civil rights and ability to express their grief. (See here and here for details). RSVP via Facebook.
Vigil candles last week for Kimani
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Update:
The only publicly identified eyewitness in the killing of a Brooklyn teen by two New York City police officers is standing by her claim that the young man was empty-handed when he was gunned down, and now says one of the cops involved threatened her life.
In an extended interview with the Village Voice Saturday night–one week to the day after 16-year-old Kimani Gray was killed–Tishana King, 39, provided new, vivid details about the 10th-grader’s final moments.
King said one officer stood “right over” Gray, continuing to shoot him while he was on the ground, and that neither cop identified himself as law enforcement when the incident began.
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