Brooklyn man gets 25 years after killing someone over a baseball hat

September 19, 2022 Rob Abruzzese

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Eagle photo by Mary Frost

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A petty fight over a baseball hat turned deadly, and now one Brooklyn man is going to serve the next 25 years of his life behind bars for it.

Adonis Barnett, a 22-year-old from Flatbush, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Raymond Rodriguez on Monday.

“This was a senseless, cold-blooded shooting of a family man walking away after retrieving his son’s stolen cap,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “Now he has lost his life, and his family lost their loved one. With today’s sentence, the defendant will spend many years behind bars as a consequence of his actions.”

Barnett was only 16-years-old at the time of the incident.

The incident started on July 29, 2016, when Barnett stole the victim’s son’s hat, a “Don C” Oakland Raiders hat that was made out of leather and snakeskin and valued at several hundred dollars, according to the DA’s Office.

Hon. Raymond Rodriguez sentenced Adonis Barnett to 25 years in prison after Barnett, who was 16 at the time, shot and killed someone over a baseball hat. Eagle file photo by Robert Abruzzese

The victim, Gerald Cummings, who was 38 at the time, confronted Barnett and another teenager on August 3, 2016, at 10:18 p.m. near the basketball courts outside of P.S. 6, near Snyder and Bedford avenues. Cummings was eventually shot by Barnett once in the back and once in the back of the head following the confrontation.

Witnesses told the District Attorney’s Office that they saw Barnett with another person, who was wearing the hat when the 17-year-old son called his father for assistance. After Cummings got the hat back, Barnett pulled out the gun and fired it three times. Cummings died at Kings County Hospital from the gunshot wounds.