Grid goodness
Raiders give tix to family of slain dad
THE OAKLAND RAIDERS have offered free game tickets to the family of a Brooklyn father killed in a fight over his son’s stolen Raiders football cap.
Gerald Cummings, 38, was fatally shot Aug. 3 after he confronted the thieves who allegedly swiped his son’s pricey Raiders cap.
After the tragedy, Oakland running back Latavius Murray sent the family a signed football.
“I’m very thankful,” Gerald Sealey, 17, told the Daily News.
Cummings’ widow said the football was a welcome reprieve.
“He brought a smile to my kids, in this time. At least they got something positive to look up to,” said Migdalia Cummings.
The family’s nightmare started when Sealey was playing basketball outside Public School 6 in Flatbush.
Three people swiped his expensive cap, according to police. The trio then roughed up Sealey and tried to steal his cell phone, authorities said.
Days later, Sealey was at the same court and saw one of the alleged thieves, Romel Baptiste, 16, wearing the cap, which is made of lambskin and snakeskin and sells online for up to $400. So he called his dad for help. Cummings came to the basketball court and snatched the hat off Baptiste’s head, sources said. The humiliated crook tried to take the cap back when one of the robber’s friends pulled a gun from his backpack and started blasting.
Cummings was shot in the head in front of his son, who was not hurt.
Baptiste was charged with robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. Police are still looking for the shooter.
“My husband died in my son’s arms,” his widow told The News earlier this month.
On Sunday, the Cummings family said they are continuing to struggle with the senseless crime.
“This is a very traumatic time,” said Gerald Cummings’ cousin Charlene Walcott. “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 added. “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?’”