Human RightsNorth America

Slain teen mom wants officers arrested

nushi20130315024748730The mother of an African-American teenager who was fatally shot by police in New York City says that her son was slaughtered and she wants the arrest of the officers responsible.

On Saturday, two New York City officers in plain clothes shot to death 16-year-old Kimani Gray 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.

“Two police officers shot down Kimani and I only want justice, the two police to be off the street before they hurt another young kid,” Carol Gray, the boy’s mother, said on Thursday.

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.

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.

“Why was Kimani been murdered, and slaughtered? Why was Kimani begging for his life? Why was Kimani saying [those things] if he had a weapon? … He’s my angel, and my baby, and he was slaughtered, and I want to know why. After the first shot, why the second bullet, why the third bullet? … Just walk in my shoes, please, and understand my grief… I want justice, for his civil rights, for being an American citizen,” Gray’s mother said.

Gray’s death has sparked three days of community protests. Forty-six people were arrested after a candlelit vigil turned into a confrontation with police on Wednesday night.

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

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