by Nelson A. King in New York 30.MAR.07

The son of former national football player, Ainsley Duncan, was gunned down on a Brooklyn street on the night of March 9, the police said.

Police said Ainsley Duncan, Jr., 21, was found on Conklin Avenue, a short distance from his home in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.{{more}}

He was slumped over on the steering wheel of a 2002 Infiniti with the motor still running and his seat belt on.

Police said a single bullet was lodged to the back of his head, and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Brookdale University Hospital.

Reports said three unidentified young men were seen running from the car shortly after it struck an abatement at about 9:50 p.m. on March 9.

Some witnesses said they heard gun shots; then the Infiniti swerved into a driveway near 1123 East, 103rd Street in Brooklyn.

Detectives at the 69th Police Precinct (station house) in Brooklyn said they have questioned a number of people, but are yet to arrest anyone in connection with the crime.

Shamika Smith, 22, Ainsley’s first cousin, told Searchlight, in an interview at the Duncan’s family home in Canarsie, that cops first told relatives that Ainsley was “burnt,” because of the smoke that emanated from the vehicle.

She said Ainsley’s feet were apparently on the brake and accelerator pedals when he was found and, consequently, some of the tires of the wheels were completely burnt.

Smith also said detectives indicated that Ainsley was the driver of the vehicle and that he probably knew the three people who reportedly ran from the car.

Marlene Duncan, Ainsley’s mother, said her son was a very quiet and focused young man, who attended Kingsborough Community College and worked part-time at the cafeteria at Brookdale University Hospital.

He was expected to graduate in June with an Associate Degree in Physical Therapy, and was hoping to continue his field of study in the fall at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Mrs. Duncan said.

“Ainsley was a very loving person,” holding back tears, and surrounded by family members and friends, including her husband Ainsley Duncan, who represented the national football team as a mid-fielder from 1970-74, and Earl Horne, a former national football administrator.

Duncan, who hails from Paul’s Avenue, was also a prominent member of soccer teams Avenues United and Honved. He migrated to the United States in 1976.

“I’m feeling very terrible,” Mrs. Duncan said. “I’m hurt. A piece of me is gone. My heart is coming out.

“The employees at Brookdale loved him very much,” added Mrs. Duncan, who also worked at the hospital as a certified nursing assistant.

“He was a very mannerly person, always smiling,” she continued. “Everybody talked so much about my child. I don’t know the reason why they killed him.”

“It’s just jealousy,” Smith intoned. “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Mr. Duncan, a normally very taciturn person, said only: “I’ll miss my son. It’s burning out my inside.”

Despite the massive snow storm, hundreds of Vincentians trekked from major North American cities, such as Toronto, Boston and Atlanta, to attend Ainsley’s funeral, on March 16, at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn.

“The church was packed,” Horne said. “If it weren’t snowing, I don’t know where we would have put them.”

Omari Smith said he will miss his younger brother a great deal, disclosing that he cooked for him the day before his untimely death.

“He was always in my house,” he said. “I have no one now to wake me up and come to my room and bother me – nobody to take my socks and cologne.”