Last Saturday, two New York police officers fatally shot 16-year-old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Flatbush neighborhood. Some witnesses say Gray was adjusting his waistband, while police say he was wielding a gun and was also a member of the Bloods gang. Today, Matt Willoughby, the late teen's principal at Manhattan's Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, released a letter complimenting the character of the dead child, reports the New York Post.
"Kimani made great strides this year academically. He was taking an extra English class after school; he was writing a dramatic dialogue in another English class; his group in Design class was working on a project to design a school. Now they are working to complete their project without him."
Gray, known as "Kiki" to friends and family, was a popular 10th-grader at the W. 50th Street school — where teachers were still mourning his death yesterday afternoon.
One teacher told The Post that staff wanted to write an editorial defending Gray against his criminal record, which includes grand larceny and inciting a riot.
"He always smiled, he came to school every day, and the kids here miss him," the teacher said. "That says a lot."
Read more at the New York Post.