Safety is friend of officer who shot man in Charlotte
Aikens played football with future cop
DAVIE— Dolphins safety Walt Aikens, who grew up in Charlotte, N.C., has been watching the recent events there surrounding the policeshooting death of Keith La mont Scott especially closely.
Aikens, it turns out, is a friend of the officer involved, Brentley Vinson, who was his football teammate at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
“It’s crazy, because I know Brent personally,” Aikens said Friday. “He’s a good dude.”
Aikens played at Liberty 2010-13, while Vinson, according to the Liberty media guide, played there 2009-12, also as a safety.
The shooting of Scott is another in a series of highprofile police shootings of African-Americans and has touched off protests in Charlotte that have attracted national attention.
Aikens — who like Vinson is also African-American — said he has kept in touch with Vinson and has talked to him since the shooting.
“I just talked to him the other day,” Aikens said. “I told him I’m praying for him. You know how this gets blown out [of proportion]. It’s just a tough situation, because with all the Black Lives Matter and being that it hit so close to home, in my home, plus I know a dude who’s involved, it’s tough, man.”
The Dolphins have become involved in the issue of friction between police and minority communities.
They have four players who knelt during the playing of the national anthem before the season
opener in Seattle: linebacker Jelani Jenkins, safety Michael Thomas, wide receiver Kenny Stills and running back Arian Foster. Jenkins stood for the national anthem at the second game against New England while Thomas, Stills and Foster elected to take a knee once again.
Those same four players, with cooperation from owner Steve Ross’ nonprofit Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality foundation, had a town hall-style meeting Tuesday night that brought together civic leaders and police to talk about making changes. The players are sponsoring a pregame tailgate before every Dolphins home game, starting Sunday against Cleveland, to help continue conversation between the sides.
Asked Friday, Jenkins said he didn’t know Aikens had a connection to the Charlotte shooting. “I had no idea,” he said. Aikens said he’s had a
good relationship with Vinson, with both being from Charlotte.
“We were cool,” Aikens said, adding that he used to ride home from Liberty with Vinson and another teammate.
Aikens said he initially didn’t know who the police officer was in the shooting.
“My mom hit me up,” he said. “I had heard about there was a shooting in Charlotte. Then my mom hit me up and said, ‘You won’t believe who the cop was.’ She told me and I was like, man that’s crazy.”
Aikens, a core specialteams player for the Dolphins, is trying to keep both sides of the fatal shooting in mind.
“Right nowthe whole situation, I’m just praying for both families, because I know Brent’s family and, of course, somebody’s dead, so you’ve got to pray for that family aswell,” he said.
“With everything going on in the news and media today, it’s kind of tough.”