(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Mourners heard a rallying cry for justice yesterday at the New York funeral of an unarmed black man shot dead by police amid a wave of nationwide protests against similar killings.
Akai Gurley, 28, a father of a young daughter, was shot dead when a police officer opened fire in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn apartment building as he walked with his girlfriend late on November 20.
Friends and relatives filed past Gurley's open casket to pay their respects at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church, before the lid was closed and a huge spray of red and white flowers placed on top of the gray coffin.
Gurley, whose mother lived in Florida, had been planning a surprise Thanksgiving trip to introduce her to his young daughter last month when he was killed.
Activist Kevin Powell, who delivered the eulogy, thanked Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city of New York for covering the costs of the funeral and issued a passionate rallying cry for change.
"Akai was innocent, innocent, innocent," he told the mourners. "This is modern-day lynchings, over and over again. Akai Gurley was simply the latest victim of this," he said, calling for homicide charges to be brought.
He demanded police reform and spoke of the recent protests that have mobilised thousands of people across the United States to denounce a spate of killings of unarmed black men by white police officers. "Let's do everything we can to prevent any more situations like this," he said.
Rev. Clinton Miller echoed the same call, saying that clergy and activists would work together to ensure that justice would prevail. "We ask that you would allow brother Akai's name to live forever in our hearts as we continue to fight for what's right in this country and this world," he said. "We will all work together to pursue justice."
The Brooklyn district attorney announced on Friday that a grand jury would consider charges in one of the cases that has again brought to the fore the distrust felt by many African Americans towards the police.
Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson said he would present all the evidence for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be brought. "I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job," he said.
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