节选： （全文－http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexronan/the-life-and-death-of-akai-gurley#.sjQyerD84）
In New York, he sold weed and crack cocaine. He was always a sharp dresser, and the money he earned allowed him to buy the sneakers and snapbacks he liked. Independently, multiple people interviewed said “Akai would give you his last.” At one point, Gurley crashed for a few months with his relative Raheem Kincaid, who lived with his wife and their kids. “One time we couldn’t make ends meet before we got food stamps again,” Kincaid told me, “I asked to borrow a little money just to get us by. Instead, he went out and bought enough food to fill all the cabinets. That’s the kinda guy he was.”
In 2006, at 19, Gurley was arrested on three separate occasions for dealing. (The NYPD declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing litigation.) In 2010, he was arrested again and subsequently served jail time. In the precinct’s holding cell he met Raymond “Gizz” Smith. Their court dates ended up on the same day, and Gurley waited for Gizz and Gizz’s friend David “YungStar” Walker outside. They exchanged numbers. “He actually came through, by himself. That was weird to me,” Gizz said, “I coulda been any dude. I coulda been trying to do something to him.” But he wasn’t, and Gurley soon joined the Annex Krew, a group of young men who promised to have one another’s backs no matter what.
Members of the Annex Krew. Alex Ronan / BuzzFeed News
Like most members of the Krew, YungStar grew up in East New York, Brooklyn, and came of age surrounded by violence. “My father used to say ‘Watch yourself’ every day before school,” YungStar told me. Other kids jumped him in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. At 13, Deshawn “Redd” Johnson said he witnessed his first gang shoot-out and had his first police interaction. “They slammed me up, searched me. I was like, ‘Yo, I’m only in junior high school,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘You didn’t even read me my rights.’ The cop dead looked at me and told me, ‘You watch too much TV.’” Every Krew member had a similar story.
Gizz said that he and YungStar tested Gurley at first. “We told him, ‘Listen, you wanna be around us, you gotta throw on the boxing gloves.’ We always bring out boxing gloves,” he said, adding, “Kid knew how to fight. I wanted him around.” It was that simple. But Gurley quickly proved himself as something more than a good right hook. They called him Bless.
Bless was fiercely protective, but not in such a way that he became a liability; he wasn’t going to drag the whole Krew into an unnecessary and possibly dangerous fight. All of his friends praised his loyalty, saying it went beyond what you’d expect.
Gurley with his daughter Akaila. Courtesy Kimberly Ballinger
Around 2010, Gurley met Kimberly Ballinger, chatting her up on the sidewalk. The couple fell in love and he moved into her apartment in the Pink Houses. He was sweet, playful, and eager to spoil Kamiya, Ballinger’s 1-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. “I’d say ‘no’ and he’d say ‘yes,’” Ballinger remembered. Two years later, Ballinger got pregnant again. Gurley was beyond excited. He texted his sister, Akisha; told Gizz “You’re gonna be an uncle!”; and counted down the months. The baby, Akaila, was born with her father’s big forehead; he called her “My Little Twin” and took to spoiling her, too.
According to multiple members of the Krew, Bless was dealing at Pink Houses in 2013 when he caught the attention of the guys running the drug trade there. The men approached him and laid down a condition — either you deal with us, or you don’t deal here. They jumped him, pistol-whipping him in the face and splitting his ear. He showed up at Gizz’s house, crying.
“I told him, ‘You gotta fall back, [get a public housing] transfer,” Gizz said. “We can’t hit those dudes ’cause they’ll come right to your door.’” But Bless told Gizz right then it wouldn’t be possible, that he had to feed his daughter. Akaila was just a baby. So Gizz offered another suggestion. “I was like, ‘You want me to come over there?’ He said no ’cause he knew if I was coming, I wasn’t coming over there to play.” Bless didn’t want anyone getting hurt, so members of the Krew suggested he stop dealing for a while. But Bless didn’t stop. Soon after, the other group dealing at Pink Houses called in a fake order, and when Bless showed up at the apartment, they beat him up.
According to members of the Krew, the conflict didn’t intensify further, but Bless’s problems did. A few weeks later, he was arrested for dealing.
Courtesy Kim Ballinger
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