Though Mayor Bloomberg has defended the actions of the two police officers who shot and killed 16-year-old Kimani Gray earlier this month, he says he tried to reach out to Gray's mother to offer his condolences; but he claims she changed her phone number to avoid speaking to him.
Bloomberg, who earlier characterized the shooting as justified, says he called East Flatbush resident Carol Gray soon after her son's death. "I give eulogies at cops’ funerals,” he told the Times. “I call parents when their kids are killed." But Bloomberg, who met with the family of Queens resident Sean Bell after he was fatally shot by the NYPD in 2006, says he was rebuffed. "I’ve tried, and the woman, the mother, is not taking any calls, changed her phone number so I can’t, but I did reach out,"he said.
City Councilman Charles Barron, who has been by Carol Gray's side for much of the past few weeks, says if Bloomberg did reach out, his actions were too little, too late. "He made some feeble attempts through other folks later on," Barron said. "But the mayor knows how to get in touch with people when he wants to." And Kenneth Montgomery, an attorney representing Carol Gray, says the family isn't invested in making contact with the mayor. "We weren’t interested in the photo op," he said. "I’m much more interested in seeing him pushing the powers that be to get an investigation done." Carol Gray has criticized the city's handling of her son's shooting, and has demanded a full investigation into the events leading up to his death; Kimani Gray was buried in Brooklyn on Saturday.
