Kings player offers to cover funeral expenses for victims of Sacramento church shooting
The Kings were on the road in Oklahoma City on Monday when a man carried out a murderous rampage inside a Sacramento church.
Players and coaches were shocked and saddened to hear the news after the game. Now, one of them wants to help the families of four people who were left dead, including the gunman’s three young daughters.
An unidentified Kings player has offered to pay for the victims’ funerals, sources told The Sacramento Bee, confirming a report from ABC10’s Sean Cunningham. The player wishes to remain anonymous out of respect for the victims’ families, sources said.
Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby mentioned during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that someone from the Kings organization had pledged to help with funeral expenses. Ashby then asked to adjourn the meeting “in honor of those three little lives taken way to soon from our city, from our community, from their sweet mom, from this world.”
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, David Mora, 39, who is also identified as David Fidel Mora-Rojas, killed himself after taking the lives of four others during a supervised visit with his daughters inside a Church near Arden Fair mall.
Authorities said Mora first killed Nathaniel King, 59, a church elder who was supervising the family visit. Mora then killed his daughters, 9-year-old Samarah, 10-year-old Samantha and 13-year-old Samia, before turning the gun on himself.
The Kings received word of the shooting immediately after leaving the court with a 131-110 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Interim coach Alvin Gentry opened his postgame news conference with some somber remarks.
“We just got the news here of what happened in Sacramento with the church shooting and … some young people there,” Gentry said. “Our hearts and our prayers go out to the family and everybody involved in that. It’s just another tragedy that’s hard to understand.
“It’s almost impossible to comprehend. We just want the families and everyone to know that we’ll be praying for them for the rest of the night and the rest of the year, and we’ll keep them in our prayers. It’s just such a tragic thing, especially when kids are losing their lives in a situation like that.”
Gentry was asked about the anonymous donation prior to Thursday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs after reports surfaced that one of his players had volunteered to cover funeral costs.
“I can just tell you we have high-character guys and that’s not a surprise to anyone that knows the guys on this team,” Gentry said. “I won’t say much about it because I think it was done, and he wanted to remain anonymous, and that’s a very admirable thing. I don’t think he was looking to get anything out of this except to take care of a horrendous situation and make it a little bit easier on the families, so we’ll just leave it at that.”
This is not the first time a member of the Kings organization has come forward to provide financial assistance to families facing tragedies in the Sacramento community.
In 2015, Kings center DeMarcus Cousins offered to pay for the funeral of Jaulon “J.J.” Clavo, a 17-year-old Grant High School football player. Clavo and teammate Malik Johnson were shot while driving back to the school for a playoff game after leaving campus to get something to eat. Keymontae Lindsey, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was convicted of Clavo’s murder in 2019.
In 2018, a year after being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, Cousins again came forward to cover funeral expenses for Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old man who was fatally shot by Sacramento police. Former Kings forward Matt Barnes, who is now a studio analyst on Kings television broadcasts, also offered to help. No criminal charges were filed after officers were cleared of wrongdoing in Clark’s death, but the shooting sparked waves of massive protests, including large demonstrations outside Golden 1 Center.
“I’m a parent myself,” Cousins told reporters at the time. “I couldn’t imagine losing one of my kids.”
In 2019, Kings forward Harrison Barnes and his wife, Brittany, covered funeral costs for Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman who was fatally shot by police officer Aaron Dean during a wellness check in Fort Worth, Texas. Barnes spent three seasons with the Dallas Mavericks and still maintains ties to the community through charity and youth outreach programs.
Barnes, who grew up in Iowa and attended North Carolina before the Golden State Warriors selected him with the No. 7 pick in the 2012 NBA draft, has supported people in his community at every stop along the way.
“I think that anytime you come to a community, whether it’s Sacramento, whether it’s Dallas, whether it’s Oakland, Chapel Hill, or any place, you always have a piece of that community that’s with you,” Barnes said. “You always want to try to give back.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
