Flatbush Families Use Basketball To Honor Those Killed By Police

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — Natasha Duncan and Carol Gray have two things in common. The first is that Flatbush police officers shot their unarmed loved ones dead.

The second is basketball.

Duncan and Gray are co-founders of Hoops For Justice, an annual Tilden Park basketball tournament that memorializes 23-year-old Shantel Davis and 16-year-old Kimani Gray, both of whom were killed in confrontations with the NYPD.

“We wanted to show that we can get together and it not be a violent thing,” Duncan explained. “We don’t need you to police us, we can do it ourselves.”

Carol and Kimani Gray, pictured left, and a memorial to Shantel Davis, pictured right. Photos courtesy of YouTube.

Duncan’s sister was killed in June 2012 when Detective Philip Atkins tried to pull the young woman out of a car that had crashed on the corner of East 38th Street and Church Avenue.

At the time, police said Davis had tried to flee the scene in a car that was stolen and, in a struggle, was accidentally shot dead by Detective Phil Atkins.

Later reports found the city had paid more than $130,000 to settle five suits accusing Atkins of attacking suspects without collecting evidence of a crime.

“The community was in a total uproar,” said Duncan. “They knew something was completely wrong.”

Nine months later, 16-year-old Gray was shot seven times when police officers saw him put his hand on his waistband.

Police later said Gray had pointed a .38-caliber handgun, which was recovered at the scene, at two plainclothes cops.

Gray’s family won a $250,000 settlement in May after witnesses testified they did not see the 16-year-old carrying the gun, which did not bare his fingerprints, and that the teen had been shot three times in the back, the Daily News reported.

But the family's wrongful death lawsuit was thrown out of court by a judge who ruled police were justified when they handcuffed the teenager after they shot him and before he died.

“There was a possibility that my little boy could have lived,” his mother told the Brooklyn News Service. “They treated him like an animal, laid out in the Brooklyn streets to die.”

Years later, the two women are united in their desire to honor Davis and Gray and to support the community that supported them in times of crisis, Duncan said.

“As soon as they heard about Shantel they came,” Duncan said of the neighbors who rallied around her after her sister's death. “It gave our family strength.”

Duncan reached out to Gray and together the pair launched Hoops For Justice in 2013, an annual summer basketball tournament that honors Davis and Gray’s memories and brings the neighborhood kids together.

Duncan is currently trying to raise $3,500 on YouCaring.com so that she can host the 150-player tournament set to take place on Aug. 4th.

Donations will help Duncan pay for jerseys, equipment, city permits, food, referees, a DJ and trophies, she said.

“This tournament was brought together by tragedy and now we want to bring the community together in celebration of Shantel & Kimani’s life,” Duncan wrote. “It is time to bring the residents of East Flatbush together to stand united against police brutality.”

Duncan did not immediately respond to Patch’s request for an interview.

Photos courtesy of YouTube