(New York Daily News) — The Rev. Al Sharpton blamed a “barbaric” criminal element – in part – for the accidental shooting death of a beloved Brooklyn matriarch last week. Sharpton called on the NYPD Saturday for a definitive ruling on whether a police bullet killed the innocent woman. Denise Gay, who would have turned 57 on Friday, was struck down by a stray bullet while sitting on the front stoop of her Crown Heights home, as cops engaged her ex-con neighbor in a gun battle. ”There was a crime they were responding to,” Sharpton said of the police. “But to those who act thuggish in our community – with your barbaric disregard for our lives – you make us vulnerable, too. You put us in a position we should never be in.”
