Professional European basketball player Kinu Rochford was killed and two others were wounded when gunfire erupted at a Harlem basketball tournament, police said Saturday.
Rochford, 35, whose love of the game took him from a court in Midwood, Brooklyn, to basketball arenas in Norway, Britain and Iceland was opening the “Kingdome” tournament at NYCHA’s King Towers on Lenox Ave. near W. 112th St. around 10:20 p.m. Friday when the shooting occurred.
The gunman shot Rochford in the head as the two argued on the sidelines, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Joann Fitzgerald, 67, said a close friend who witnessed the carnage described it to her — and it clearly sounded intentional.
“He just walked up on the court and shot him,” she said. “(Kinu) didn’t deserve it. He’s such a good player.”
A second man, 28, was hit in the shin and a 22-year-old woman was shot in her right forearm amid the gunfire, which sent spectators at the packed basketball court scrambling for cover.
“Once the shots (were heard), people was running,” Fitzgerald said. “They was trampling on top of each other.”
NYPD detectives believe Rochford was the gunman’s intended target. The two others who were wounded were innocent bystanders.
Rochford and his killer may have been arguing over a woman they both knew, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Video released online of the shooting’s aftermath showed police performing CPR on Rochford as he lay on his back on the court, wearing a white T-shirt and pink shorts.
EMS rushed Rochford to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved. The other wounded were taken to Harlem Hospital, where they were expected to survive.
Rochford lived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, about 15 miles from where he was killed, police said.
His team, “The Young Onez,” plays in the tournament every year. Their game opened the tournament Friday night.
“They won last year,” Fitzgerald said of Rochford’s team. “The team sticks together and they play really good.”
Rochford, she said, “loved basketball.”
“He loved to play,” she said.
The star forward played for James Madison High School and Globe Tech and Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey before embarking on a professional career in 2013 with Aris Leeuwarden in the Dutch Basketball League.
He also played in the British Basketball League, as well as for teams in Iceland and Portugal, before finishing his professional career with the Golden Eagle Ylli in the Kosovo Basketball Superleague in 2021.
“FDU is devastated to hear of the tragic passing of former men’s basketball player Kinu Rochford,” FDU said on X Saturday. “A standout Knight and leader, Rochford built a legacy in Hackensack.”
“Kinu lost his life due to senseless violence while playing the game he loved last night at the Kingdome,” HoopdreamsNYC added. “(He was) one of NYC Streetballs greatest players a product of James Madison HS and FDU.”
On Saturday, a pool of blood could still be found at the basketball court where Rochford was killed. The concrete bleachers around the basketball court were teeming with trash, plastic cups and bottles of alcohol.
“Kinu Rochford this is just a dream,” fellow basketball player Roman Perez wrote on Facebook. “This can’t be the way… NYC we must do better.”
The gunman ran off. No arrests have been made.
NYPD detectives were scouring the area for surveillance footage that could help them identify the shooter.
“This is going to be really hurtful to a lot of people,” Fitzgerald said about the shooting.
She has attended Kingdome tournaments for more than 50 years, and this was the first time there was gun violence at the games, she said.
“People are very very emotional behind this,” she said. “They’re very hurt because this has been so exciting for so many years.”
Mayor Mamdani, in a post on X, decried the outburst of “senseless violence” in a public space meant for positive activity.
“I am heartbroken for the family of the man who was killed last night at a basketball tournament in Harlem,” the mayor said. “This senseless violence must stop. New Yorkers deserve to spend the summer watching and playing sports, attending community events, and enjoying our public spaces — places where families, friends and neighbors joyfully gather, not where people are at risk of becoming victims to gun violence.”
Similarly, Harlem Assemblyman Jordan Wright called the shooting “another act of senseless violence in my community.”
“I feel like it’s disgusting that something as celebratory as a basketball tournament has to devolve into something as upsetting as a loss of life,” he said.
Local Councilman Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park Five, agreed.
“When (something like this) happens, we’re just so broken apart again at the violence that happens in our community,” he said, noting the “fear that stays in our community.”
“Fear of coming outside just enjoying this moment at the Kingdome,” he said.
This was the second time in a week that multiple people were hit by gunfire at a single event.
On July Fourth, eight people, including four children, were wounded when a gunman in a ski mask unleashed a hail of bullets at a Coney Island barbecue.
Alleged gunman Robert Smith was busted Wednesday on attempted murder and gun charges for allegedly opening fire on the family gathering in an apartment tower courtyard on W. 30th St. near Surf Ave. — just a block from the Brooklyn neighborhood’s famed boardwalk and beach.
Brooklyn prosecutors called the attack a “mass shooting” as Smith was ordered held without bail at his arraignment.
The most severely injured victim is a 21-year-old woman who was struck in the chest and rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
It’s not clear if police have established a motive for the Brooklyn shooting, though Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said police were looking into a possible link to the gang-related killing of a drill rapper in the neighborhood two days earlier.
With Rocco Parascandola
