By Christina Santucci
A Cambria Heights grandfather was shot and killed while dropping off money in Brooklyn to help a family friend pay for Thanksgiving dinner, police and his relatives said.
Clifford Hubbard, 66, had just parked near the Whitman Houses in Fort Greene at about 3 a.m. Friday morning, cops and his family said.
“From what I understand from detectives, he walked a few feet and someone confronted him for his money,” his son Clifford Hubbard Jr. said.
Hubbard, an Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, would have been reluctant to hand over his belongings, his son said.
“A fight ensued and he just got shot,” Clifford Hubbard Jr. said.
Police said Hubbard Sr. had three gunshot wounds to the torso when officers arrived at 56 North Oxford Walk, and emergency responders brought him to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hubbard Jr. was working with the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services when he got a call from his uncle telling him about the shooting and he rushed to the hospital.
He said he hoped that police will be able to identify whoever killed his father.
“I want the person who is responsible to be held accountable,” he said.
Hubbard Jr. said his father worked as a truck driver delivering goods for Duane Reade, was married and had three children – two daughters, one of whom died a few years ago.
“I just hope I can live up to his footsteps,” his son said. “I’ll try.”
Hubbard Jr. described his father as outgoing and a jokester.
“He was more or less the life of the party,” his son said.
He also was an adoring grandfather to his seven grandkids, and the last conversation Hubbard Jr. had with his father was about his grandson Morris’ eighth birthday on Monday. Hubbard Sr. planned to bring balloons for the child, who is nicknamed “Cliffie.”
On Sunday evening, relatives were still planning a Catholic funeral Mass for Hubbard Sr. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village once the city’s medical examiner’s office released his body.
“I know he is in heaven because it was a good deed. It was a good deed that he was trying to do,” his son said. “He didn’t have to do anything for everybody but he did. That’s just the kind of person he was.”
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com by phone at 718-260-4589.
