Protests for slain NYC teen enter 6th night

Demonstrators outraged over the deadly shooting of an African-American teenager by police have taken to the streets of Brooklyn in New York City for the sixth straight night.

On Saturday, demonstrators gathered at a candlelight vigil on a street corner in the borough and then marched to a police station in an ongoing protest over the death of Kimani Gray, the 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot by police officers over a week earlier.

Hundreds of police officers filled the streets surrounding Saturday’s evening demonstration.

“As I biked over here from East 16th Street, I counted at least one police car per block — 40 police cars,” said Lisa Knaue, a protester at the demonstration.

“I don’t know if it means they’re afraid of the community. It certainly makes me feel criminalized.”

On March 9, two New York City officers in plain clothes shot Gray to death in Brooklyn’ s East Flatbush neighborhood, claiming they took the action after the teen brandished a gun and pointed it at them.

The family denies the police accusation, saying Gray was unarmed.

Devonte Brown, Gray’s friend, who was with him on the night of the shooting, told reporters after the incident that Gary “was screaming, ‘Stop! I’m not running,” while the officers opened fire on him.

A post-mortem examination found that Kimani had been hit seven times by the police officers’ bullets, three of them in the back but the report did not detail the order in which the bullets hit.

Gray’s death has sparked days of community protests. Around 50 people were arrested after a candlelit vigil turned into a confrontation with police on March 15 when demonstrators attempted to march to a New York Police Department (NYPD) stationhouse in Brooklyn.

Local residents have grown quite suspicious and distrustful of the police, widely accusing NYPD officers with racial profiling and unfairly targeting mostly African American youth in their supposed efforts to fight crime.