Protests in Brooklyn After NYPD Kills 16-Year-Old Boy

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/Pinkgreenblack

Around 100 people took to the streets of East Flatbush, Brooklyn on Monday night to protest the death of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, who was shot and killed by two plain clothes New York City Police Department officers on Saturday March 9. Police officers claim the teen "adjusted his waistband in ...  a 'suspicious manner'" and brandished a revolver before they fired 11 rounds and killed him.

Last night's demonstration began as a peaceful vigil but briefly turned violent "after a faction broke off from the group and began to smash car and store windows with rocks and jump on the tops of vehicles, police sources and witnesses said." reports the Daily News. However, there "were no reports of arrests or injuries."

There are conflicting reports as to what happened on Saturday evening. "An eyewitness told Pix11 that Gray was 'running for his life' when he was shot dead and never brandished a weapon," reports Colorlines.

The NYPD's account to The New York Times is much different:

As officers got out of the car to question him, Mr. Gray turned and pointed a .38-caliber Rohm revolver at them, the police said; two officers fired, hitting the teenager. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Kings County Hospital Center. "After the anti-crime sergeant and police officer told the suspect to show his hands, which was heard by witnesses, Gray produced a revolver and pointed it at the officers, who fired a total of 11 rounds, striking Gray several times," [NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne] said.

Mr. Gray’s sister, Mahnefah Gray, 19, said that a witness to the shooting told her that her brother had been fixing his belt when he was shot. She, among others who knew Mr. Gray, said they had never known him to have a gun. Even if he had one on Saturday night, he would not have pointed it at police officers, Ms. Gray said. "He has common sense," she said.

A woman who lives across the street from the shooting scene said that after the shots were fired, she saw two men, whom she believed to be plainclothes officers, standing over Mr. Gray, who was prone on the sidewalk, clutching his stomach. "He said, ‘Please don’t let me die,’ ” said the woman, 46, who gave her name only as Vanessa. One of the officers, she said, replied: 'Stay down, or we’ll shoot you again.'"

The police maintain that Gray "did not fire the handgun. ... The six-shot revolver was loaded with four live rounds."

"Stay down or we’ll shoot you again."

Comments

[J]

Sad to say that children are dying in these streets past alarming rates and its not even considered a crisis in the black community, I honestly don't know where our future will be in this country, or if there will even be one. I think people thought that things were getting better but to be honest, society is so mentally ill and chasing that American Dream when it wasn't even designed to include u as led many astray the black middle class is out of touch and Obama's election blinded us to the truth, not blaming him, blaming us, material gains are not worth whats happened to our people.

[Zambos27]

This is sad.