The San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Anquan Boldin have slogged through a tremendously difficult start to the 2015 NFL season, losing five of their first seven games and now, nearly at the season's halfway point, find themselves alone in the NFC West basement. But the issues the team has faced on the field this year pales in comparison to the tragedy that befell Boldin and his family only two short weeks ago. Boldin's cousin, Corey Jones, was shot three times by a plainclothes police office on the side of a highway in Florida as he waited for a tow truck in the early morning hours of Oct. 18.
Ten days later, Boldin is awaiting answers as to why Officer Nouman Raja arrived in an unmarked van and shot and killed Jones after stopping to investigate what he later said he thought was an abandoned vehicle.
"How do you go from waiting for help on the side of the road to dead?" Boldin asked Tuesday, via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. "For me, that doesn't add up."
Jones, 31, was, per Barrows, a well-known musician who worked two jobs and did not have a past history of violence, though he was arrested in 2007 for possession of a concealed firearm, a charge to which he plead not guilty.
On the morning in question, phone records obtained by Barrows show that Jones was on the phone with roadside assistance at the time of the shooting after having made several calls to report his predicament. Police later indicated that a gun Jones had purchased three days prior was found at the scene. It had not been fired.
Jones' body was found "80 to 100 feet" from his vehicle.
"I find it hard to grieve when you don't know," Boldin said, per Barrows. "And at this point, that's all my family's asking for - the questions that have yet to be answered. That's the least you can do."
Boldin, though not as prominent a player as he once was, made clear to Barrows that he's willing to use whatever influence he holds as an active NFL player to find out why Jones wound up dead on that Florida highway. He also said he doesn't want his own sons growing up with a fear of police.
"I want my son to grow up respecting law enforcement, not fearing, 'If I break down, I can't call the police' or, 'If I'm in a sticky situation, I can't call the police,'" Boldin told Barrows. "The police are here to protect and serve. That's what they're sworn to do; that's what they're paid to do.
"But there's instances where that doesn't happen. My cousin wasn't protected. They didn't serve him. He needed assistance. But instead he got a death sentence."
