Kadeem Trotter shot and killed September 18th 2016

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Lundie Chambers, mother of Kadeem Trotter, on the right and his grandmother, Hildra Fobbs, on the left, walking with a sign and picture of their relative Kadeem Trotter who was one of the more recent victims of police killing this past Sept 17th 2016. They were a part of this years #RiseUpOctober rally and march along with an induction ceremony at St Mary’s Episcopal Church where the names of recent deaths at the hands of police or, in the case of Kadeem, an off duty court officer were added to the list.
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Hildra Fobbs and Lundie Chambers marching with other supporters of justice at this years #RiseUpOctober to St Mary’s Episcopal Church to call attention to the rampant increase in the killing by police of black and brown people in the United States.

 In an interview with an Aunt of Kadeem Trotter, Kyung Trotter, who told me their story. 

She told me that 2 detectives came to her home telling her that Kadeem checked himself into Jamaica hospital and died of a heart attack.

The story of what happened is coming from an off-duty court officer who said Kadeem tried to rob him with a BB gun outside of Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Liberty Ave and Merrick Blvd in Jamaica, NY.

The first article written in the NY Daily News showing a photo of the crime scene of where Kadeem was shot across and down the Liberty Ave., a busy, 4 lane street with a median.

The photo showed 2 shell casings behind an SUV right next to a tree. Right across from the tree and shell casings are 2 bullet holes in an SUV. Across from the SUV was where Kadeem’s bike was laying on the ground next to a blood stain.

I looked online for the photo in the Daily News and I can’t find anything on Kadeem Trotter in any news article at anywhere.

Kyung Trotter told me it was reported to her by officials that Kadeem was shot in the torso but, where in torso she has no idea.

The Trotter family is wondering why Kadeem’s body was found across the street and wh there are bullet holes in an SUV across the street and 2 shell casings. “How did his body end up across the street? The picture doesn’t lie”, Kyung said. On top of that the entire area is covered with surveillance cameras”. There has been no release of video footage of the incident by “officials”.

The family doesn’t know anything or seen pictures of the BB gun that Kadeem allegedly robbed the court officer with.  “The DA has not contacted us or told us anything”, Kyung said. She believes there’s a Assistant DA assigned to the case. I can’t imagine the DA is not aware of what’s going on?

“There were so many newspapers that covered this story that spread across the internet 2 days before my sister even knew her son was dead”.

One story said there was a struggle before the shooting. Another story said Kadeem approached the court officer when he was getting into his car.

“Right above the parking lot of the Papa Johns is a surveillance camera. The Dunkin Donuts (a few doors down) manager said the surveillance cameras capture everything outside his door. They have surveillance of what the court officer said happened”

“I believe that my nephew saw the court officer had a real weapon and took off on his bike. I believe the court officer took his time and followed my nephew across the street and he got to a point where he could stand by that tree and fire as my nephew was trying to get away” Zyung Trotter told me.

“A suspect is innocent until proven guilty and the way these articles are written Kadeem is already tried and convicted. The word “alleged isn’t even in any of these articles”.

“There’s a camera in front of Popeye’s, there’s a camera in front of Dunkin Donuts, there’s a camera over the parking lot of Papa Johns, there’s a camera outside of Storage Plus which had to catch both of them coming across that busy street. And then there’s at least 2 cameras in front of the bus depot which is adjacent to where Kadeem ended up. So you have all these surveillance cameras surrounding this area, where’s the footage?”.

I asked Kyung at what stage in the investigation, if any, is the case at now? “We don’t know”, she told me, “and that’s what’s interesting because we I was doing some research as to what rights we have and the Fair Treatment Act says that this DA was supposed to provide us with a pamphlet about what we were supposed to know, the help that we could get and we’re supposed to be informed of what steps he’s taking in this process and we haven’t gotten any of that”.

The family of Kadeem had a local lawyer try to help and be a go-between with the DA and was given the brush and told that it was an on going investigation.

The family was not given the Medical examiners report, all they were getting was that it was an ‘On- going investigation’.

The families current civil lawyer has filed 2 notices of claims on the state and upon the city informing them that Kadeem’s mother Lundie intends to sue as Kadeem’s estate.

Here is the link for the Go Fund Me for the burial for Kadeem.

https://www.gofundme.com/burialforkadeem

This is what the site reads,,

It only takes four hours to identify a John Doe. Instead of contacting his mother, Lundie Chambers and my sister, the police instead contacted the media with the court officer’s version of the story, the same night my nephew was killed. The media even spoke to the officer’s family for their comments, but no one contacted us, the bereaved family.

Although his body lie in a hospital morgue since then, it took detectives 3 days to notify his mother and us that her son and our loved one, respectively, was dead.
The detectives simply told her that it was an “accident” and that “He didn’t make it.” However, we later found out that according to an eyewitness he was shot while running away. There are several surveillance cameras surrounding the perimeter of  the othewise unknown circumstances. What we do know is the police reported that they found four 9mm shell casings at the ultimate scene and that the Medical Examiner has ruled it a homicide.

We should not be burying Kadeem right now, but as we must, we are of modest means. We are humbly asking for any support that you can muster to help us bury our loved one, and yet another black man lost to this epidemic of police officers, murdering our men at will.

Author: Cat April Watters

On a Truth Diet! Purging myself of all the LIES from Society.