Family’s Message To Al Sharpton: “Who made you the spokesperson of our family?”

The Reverend Al Sharpton has earned the ire of the family of Akai Gurley, a victim of a police-shooting in New York. The family accuses Al Sharpton of piggybacking on the publicity gained from the death of the NYPD victim.

Al Sharpton is alleged to have bullied his way into the funeral arrangements, sending press releases billing himself as the eulogist. The family is also upset that Sharpton has tried to gain the publicity without the permission of the family.

Hertencia Petersen told The New York Post that she was shocked that Sharpton and the National Action Network had gone about proceeding this way.

“Al Sharpton came in, put his name on the situation, but has not even made one single call to the parents of Akai.”

“How can you do a eulogy for someone you don’t even know? It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “He just wants to take credit for this when he’s never even contacted my sister [Gurley’s mother].

“Who made you the spokesperson of our family? We just want to bury our nephew with dignity and respect.”

Afterwards, Sharpton decided to back off, blaming it on “confusion and division” within the Gurley family.

Sharpton told the New York Daily News that, “I didn’t know until today that the mother and the sister and the domestic partner weren’t together.”

The family was also disheartened that Sharpton, whom tried to dictate the proceedings, had not offered to help contribute financially to the funeral arrangement.

However, Sharpton claimed that he was asked to speak on the request of Kimberly Ballinger, Akia’s domestic partner.

“I altered my schedule based on Kimberly Ballinger’s request, the domestic partner of Akai Gurley,” Sharpton claimed.

“National Action Network would have held the funeral without them,” said Malkia King, president of the union’s benefits fund, who helped raise the $6,000 needed to pay for flights and a hotel room for the mother of the victim and other relatives.

The family now considers Al Sharpton a publicity hunter, claiming that it was pure chaos once Sharpton arrived.

“It’s not pretty, there’s confusion.”

In the press release sent around Friday, Sharpton said he would spend Saturday on Staten Island with the families of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, and the lawyer for the family of Ferguson police-shooting victim Michael Brown.

[Image via abcnews]