The family of police-shooting victim Akai Gurley had a message on Friday for the Rev. Al Sharpton: Keep your “circus” away from his funeral!
The blowhard opportunist muscled his way into the arrangements — and even put out press releases promising to deliver the eulogy — without ever consulting the family or offering to foot the bill.
But Gurley’s relatives told Sharpton to stay away rather than turn the somber ceremonies into a spectacle.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Gurley’s aunt, Hertencia Petersen, told The Post. “He just wants to take credit for this when he’s never even contacted my sister [Gurley’s mother].
“Who made you the spokesperson of our family? We just want to bury our nephew with dignity and respect.”
Petersen was stunned that Sharpton and his National Action Network billed him as the eulogist for a Friday funeral, when they were planning on a Saturday service and wanted a speaker who actually knew Gurley.
“How can you do a eulogy for someone you don’t even know? It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
By late Friday, Sharpton accepted a rare defeat and backed off, though he blamed it on “confusion and division” within the Gurley family.
He said he would not attend Saturday’s 11 a.m. service at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn — and even backed off the Friday wake.
Gurley, 28, was shot and killed on Nov. 20 at Brooklyn’s Louis Pink Houses by rookie cop Peter Liang, who fired blindly into the darkness of an unlit stairwell.
Liang, who had been on a patrol at the East New York housing project, told officers it was an accident.
The Brooklyn district attorney plans to present evidence to a grand jury to determine whether Liang will face criminal charges, officials said Friday.
Gurley’s mom, Sylvia Palmer, spoke about her son’s death publicly for the first time Friday and said she is putting her faith in the courts.
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NYPD shooting victim’s family: Stay away, Sharpton! | New York Post
The blowhard opportunist muscled his way into the arrangements — and even put out press releases promising to deliver the eulogy — without ever consulting the family or offering to foot the bill.
But Gurley’s relatives told Sharpton to stay away rather than turn the somber ceremonies into a spectacle.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Gurley’s aunt, Hertencia Petersen, told The Post. “He just wants to take credit for this when he’s never even contacted my sister [Gurley’s mother].
“Who made you the spokesperson of our family? We just want to bury our nephew with dignity and respect.”
Petersen was stunned that Sharpton and his National Action Network billed him as the eulogist for a Friday funeral, when they were planning on a Saturday service and wanted a speaker who actually knew Gurley.
“How can you do a eulogy for someone you don’t even know? It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
By late Friday, Sharpton accepted a rare defeat and backed off, though he blamed it on “confusion and division” within the Gurley family.
He said he would not attend Saturday’s 11 a.m. service at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn — and even backed off the Friday wake.
Gurley, 28, was shot and killed on Nov. 20 at Brooklyn’s Louis Pink Houses by rookie cop Peter Liang, who fired blindly into the darkness of an unlit stairwell.
Liang, who had been on a patrol at the East New York housing project, told officers it was an accident.
The Brooklyn district attorney plans to present evidence to a grand jury to determine whether Liang will face criminal charges, officials said Friday.
Gurley’s mom, Sylvia Palmer, spoke about her son’s death publicly for the first time Friday and said she is putting her faith in the courts.
more
NYPD shooting victim’s family: Stay away, Sharpton! | New York Post
