News Flatbush

Oakland Raiders give tickets, signed football to family of Flatbush dad murdered over stolen hat

September 1, 2016 By Scott Enman Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
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The Oakland Raiders on Sunday graciously gave free game tickets to the family of a Brooklyn father who was murdered in Flatbush on Aug. 3 over his son’s stolen hat.

Oakland’s star running back Latavius Murray also sent the family a football signed by members of the team.

Thirty-eight-year-old Gerald Cummings, a father of two, was fatally shot after he confronted a group of thieves who had stolen his son’s designer Oakland Raiders hat.

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According to the Daily News, Cummings’ eldest son, Gerald Sealey, 17, was playing basketball at P.S. 6 in Flatbush, when three people allegedly roughed him up, stole his cap and attempted to steal his cellphone.

The Daily News reported that several days later, Sealey was playing on the same court when he spotted one of the alleged thieves, Romel Baptiste, 16, wearing his lambskin and snakeskin cap, which costs up to $375 online.

After seeing the thief, Sealey reportedly called his father, who immediately came to his aid. Cummings arrived and removed his son’s hat from the crook’s head; when the embarrassed robber tried to take the cap back, his friend pulled a gun from a backpack and fatally shot Cummings in the head, according to the Daily News.

Baptiste was charged with robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. The shooter, Adonis Barnett, 16, was indicted on murder charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court last week.  

“This is a very traumatic time,” Cummings’ cousin Charlene Walcott told the Daily News. “These kids need help. These kids need counseling.

“I would really like this story to be heard, because this is a life, and it means a lot to us,” she continued. “We have to make parents aware of their children, when they come in their house with a hat that ain’t theirs, you have to ask, ‘Yo, where’d you get that hat from?’”

 


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