FORT GREENE — The family of a 39-year-old man killed last weekend outside the Ingersoll Houses is raising money for his funeral, according to a GoFundMe campaign.
Edward Taylor, 27, of Richmond, Virginia posted the plea to help give his brother Lacount Simmons, known as "Kojack," a "proper burial."
"He was a very relaxed guy. He was rarely angry, he was really cool. He was definitely family oriented, he was giving, very funny. And very protective," Taylor, who works in retail banking for Wells Fargo, told DNAinfo from Virginia.
"The shocker is that he was shot."
The family was not prepared for the funeral expenses related to Simmons' unexpected death.
"Unfortunately, he did not have any insurance," Taylor wrote on the GoFundMe page. "My family now has to come up with the funds to to give my brother a proper burial."
“My brother has one son (my nephew) who has to live with the aftermath of his death. Any penny helps.”
As of Friday afternoon, $85 of the $6,000 requested had been raised.
The day after the shooting, Ingersoll neighbors remembered Simmons as a gentle man. “He was a sweet guy, he didn’t hurt nobody, he looked out for everybody, always a kind word,” said Dorothy Johnson, who said her father gave Simmons his nickname.
Simmons, Calvin Clinkscales, 43, and Herbert Brown, 76, were shot to death at around 1:47 a.m. outside the Ingersoll Houses on Myrtle Avenue Sept. 20, according to police.
Calvin Clinkscales’ sister Shilice Banks said her brother had been visiting their aunt at Ingersoll when he was shot.
“My brother was one of the sweetest, kindest people you could know,” she. told DNAinfo New York. “He was a victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, the same as the governor's aide.”
“Great guys, both of them,” C-Allah Coombs told DNAinfo. Brown was a “church man,” Coombs said. “Brother Brown, I knew him all my life. Great guys, all of them. And I just can't see why anybody would kill them.”
Police said the shooting was drug-related, but Banks denied that account.
"His name shouldn't be slandered because he didn't have a college education," she wrote in an email.
