Mom of NYC teen shot by police: Why was he killed?
Carol Gray, left, , seated next to City Councilman Charles Barron, right, shows a photo of her with her son Kimani "Kiki" Gray, during a press conference on Thursday, March 14, 2013 in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. / AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
NEW YORK Carol Gray, her head wrapped in a black scarf and her tearful eyes concealed by sunglasses, held up a photograph of her 16-year-old son, who was shot and killed by police.
The picture revealed a grinning boy wearing a blue cap and gown, his arms wrapped around his mother. It was taken the day he graduated from middle school.
"He was slaughtered," Gray told a room filled with reporters. "And I want to know why."
Gray held a sorrowful press conference on Thursday to talk about her son, Kimani Gray, the kid nicknamed Kiki, who died on Saturday night after being shot seven times by two police officers. Police say the plainclothes officers opened fire after Gray pointed a gun at them.
A .38-caliber revolver purchased in Florida was recovered from the scene.
Gray was killed in front of his best friend's house as he left a Sweet 16 birthday party, said his grieving mother, who doesn't believe he could have pointed a gun at police.
"Today was very hard," she said, and paused for a long moment before she was able to finish the sentence. "I had to choose the color of the casket that I wanted."
The teenager's death has provoked outrage in East Flatbush, the working-class area of Brooklyn where he lived and died, a place that is among the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Long-simmering resentment against the police officers who patrol these streets has erupted into violence in recent days, with 46 people arrested in the most recent protest on Wednesday night.
A police officer was hit by an object tossed from a building during the protest and suffered a gash in his face.
Gray, who was black, was with a group on Saturday night but left when he saw officers in an unmarked car, police said. The plainclothes officers, who were black and Hispanic, approached him because he was acting in a suspicious manner, police said.
An organizer of Wednesday's event, Rickford Burke, said there's a deep feeling of frustration in the community that police officers regularly harass and target young black men.
"The police department has proven to be racially inattentive to black communities, and this one is no different," he said.
According to police, Gray pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them, and they opened fire. The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative duty.
"Our hearts all have to go out to the family of this young man," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an unrelated news conference. "So far, all indications are that the young man had a gun, and I can promise you that we will conduct a full and fair investigation."
The public outcry, which has dragged on for several days, showed no signs of slowing, with another protest taking place Thursday night.
On Monday, dozens of people threw bottles and damaged some stores. Surveillance video shows a cashier cowering in a corner as people looted his shop.
"I understand that there's anger in the community, but the way to get answers is not through violence or law-breaking," said Bloomberg. "We cannot tolerate that, and we will not tolerate that."
Bouquets of flowers and lit candles formed a makeshift memorial on the sidewalk near the corner where Gray died. Posters were scrawled with messages: "Love you lil bro" and "RIP Waking Angel."
"Everybody loved him," said Shawn Burgendy, a friend of Gray's who had stopped by the memorial. "Never had a problem with him. He was just around a bunch of bad situations."
Would his friend point a gun at a cop?
"He's not that type of kid. He's not a dummy," Burgendy said. "He wouldn't just go and pull a gun on the police. Who would pull a gun on a police officer?"
A police officer may use deadly force when he or she has a reasonable fear of serious injury or death, and police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said the shooting appeared to be within those guidelines.
Gray's death marks the 10th police-involved shooting this year. A weapon was recovered from every one, police said. In 2011, police shot and killed nine suspects and injured 19, the lowest in recent years, according to a police report released last fall.
The 2012 firearms discharge report has not been published.
Kenneth Montgomery, a lawyer for the Gray family, questioned the police department's account of how the teen died. The family wants to know how the gun was recovered and by whom, he said.
The medical examiner's office ruled that Gray was hit seven times and had wounds in the front and back of his body, including his shoulder, rib cage, forearm and legs.
Speaking of her son in the present tense, Carol Gray remembered a boy who still had a curfew to abide by at night. A boy who babysat his nieces and nephews regularly and who, for the first time in his life, recently got a bedroom all to himself.
"The past couple of days, the bell hasn't rung," she said. "I'm still waiting for him to come home."
While she doesn't condone the violent protests, Gray said she wants answers. She wants to know why her son was struck by more than one bullet. And she wants to know why she will have to bury him in the coming days.
This is the second tragedy for the family: Two years ago, her older son was killed in a car accident.
"Now I have to place my younger boy in the same hole," she said.
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They may have done this and been ignored. but the article doesn't mention it at all.
If it actually played out the way it's been written, with no warnings or identification called out, then in a notoriously violent neighbourhood a kid of just 16, (remember what that was like?) coming out of a party sees a gang of grown-ups get out of their car and approach him with guns drawn.
He, in fear for his life pulls ot a gun to protect himself and the cops mistake this for a threatening act and open fire without any attempt to avoid his death, shooting him not once or even twice but no less than seven times.
If they did identify themselves as officers and request his surrender before he pulled out his gun then the shooting is probably legal as pointed out in the article, but I'd expect the officers to have to explain why he was shot so many times and is dead and not in custody in a hospital recovering from a single gunshot wound.
If no warning was given as this article implies, and from his point of view a bunch of armed guys just got out of a car and walked up before shooting him then I'd expect criminal charges to be brought against the officers.
but what if we never will know, then what ?
May be I am not as smart as they are
but there is one witness,
are they going after him ?
Again with a picture of him and mom several years ago...Shades of Treyvon in that red shirt when 12 years old.
We say they cannot stone people on broad day light in Afg,
...they cannot ban human rights in china,
...they cannot terror in Mali
...but our police can kill whenever whereever,
...due to unwillingness to change policy.
You realy think in 100 years from now, we have the same still ?
People then know it was all about changing, yes...we...can.. got lost ?
Get a clue, this is the USA. Rule of Law is than police can carry guns so they can defend themselves. AND the boyz know this yet try to out shoot armed officers - bad idea.
it is a one way road thinking,
nothing can be done !!!!!!
You have been around,
you might have been in small towns,
were everybody knows everybody, just for example.
All I say is, we growth so fast in science and techno,
but our human invention to make us more human is lacking.
Cannot be done, if they had said that to airline crashes,
they would all still comng down 24 h.
Let us think of new ways, not stick to my grandpa did so ......
why nobody shot him,
because we use some normal sense first,
why not change police training to avoid this drama.
They say cannot be done, stupid, sure we can do anything if we use some....
It's not like the story of the poor sweet little 6 month old baby girl in Chicago being shot 5 times and died while her Gansta father was changing her diaper as they tried to kill him.
I don't see this on CNN or other sites. Hmmm.
CNN's lead story is the trial of boyz of da 'hood who allegedly assaulted a 16 year old girl (drunk? TBD).
WMDMIA
Took photos of what?
The man pointing a gun at police before he was shot?
-------
The reality is, and as I alluded to earlier, one need NOT even point the gun at anyone or anything, to wind up being shot- and killed, by police. Justifiable? In most all cases, the answer is "yes". The hard data proves this. Most police shootings are not unwarranted nor not justified.
All it takes is the display of a gun OR something that resembles one. It need not be in working order, or even loaded if it is, and it doesn't actually have to be a 'real' gun. It need only appear, in the judgment of an officer, to look like one. It doesn't necessarily need to be observed as an "aimed" weapon, either. Firearms are also far from being the only weapons police are trained to recognize as deadly and an immediate threat to their safety, in the course of their observations, in the line of duty.
It is possible the 16 year-old was observed with a gun out, in hand, and at the first instant of a police reaction, he may have made the wrong move, and thus that move is proved to be a fatal one (if the investigation concludes a reasonable fear was upon either or both of the officers, and as such, posed a threat to their physical safety.
Officers are trained to NOT wait for a gun to become pointed in their general direction. All it takes is a sudden movement or reaction upon being observed with a gun in hand. Even in cases where a subject observed with a gun has his/her back mostly turned to an officer or officers. The cops will not wait for what "may" happen next. And in some cases, if a weapon such as a handgun is out, there may not even be time for an observing officer to give commands upon being witness to someone with a gun, as the perceived threat comes too quickly for a full or even partial command to be delivered.
In the time it takes an officer to shout, "police, drop your weapon," a subject can go from being someone with a no longer concealed firearm in hand, to being a perp reasonably believe to be intent on shooting the officer. In many cases, the very FIRST order of business would be to draw down and become defended. Service weapon is out, and pointed at the center of mass of the person who is the threat. Next, and depending on the exact circumstances and the scene, an officer may seek immediate cover while OR while not giving a verbal command.
Sometimes however, given certain pathology, chain of events, it is simply draw, point and shoot, and it can happen in a matter of only a couple seconds.
as long as there are no officers around.
This is nuts.
Next agenda on politcal hill !