A former European professional basketball player was fatally shot in a targeted murder Friday night at a packed Harlem basketball tournament, cops told The Post.

Kinu Rochford, a standout at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, was shot in the head at around 10:30 p.m. at the Kingdome Basketball Tournament in the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers on Lenox Avenue, police said.

Two other people were wounded when gunfire erupted, cops said.

Kinu Rochford was killed when gunshots rang on a basketball court in Harlem around 10:30 p.m. Friday.FDU Athletics
“It sounded like a firework,” said witness Jessica Montgomery. “And then I heard it again and people started running.”

Rochford, 35, who was playing in the tournament, was shot while watching between games, according to cops.

The shooting stemmed from a squabble Rochford, of Brooklyn, was having with another man, a police source said.

The nature of the beef wasn’t immediately known, the source said.

6
Rochford, who was playing in the tournament, was struck while watching between games, according to cops and witnesses.Facebook/Kinu Rochford
Emergency responders gave CPR to Rochford, who lived in Crown Heights, and rushed him to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved, cops said.

The two injured — a 28-year-old man was shot in the shin and a 22-year-old woman was shot in the right forearm — were among the estimated 500 in the crowd watching the tournament between West 112th Street and West 115th Street.

They were both taken to Harlem Hospital in stable condition.

Several mourners arrived Saturday at the Rochford’s Brooklyn Avenue apartment in Crown Heights carrying bouquets of flowers. A man leaving the building screamed, “Kinuuuu!”

A neighbor said Rochford was part of a set of triplets — two boys and a girl — and that his parents were from Trinidad.

Explore More

CBS news anchor nearly loses life savings in LA scam

Kids who left Nolan Wells behind ‘have to answer to’ his devastated parents

Inside Ohio house of horrors where 16 ‘feral’ kids were rescued — stomach-churning pics reveal filthy, inhumane conditions
He remembered “years ago” he would see Rochford’s father in a nearby park watching his sons play basketball.

“Those are my two bulls,” Rochford’s father said of his two sons, the neighbor recalled. “They loved basketball.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting, saying on X Saturday that he’s “heartbroken” for Rochford’s family and that “this senseless violence must stop.”

6
The former Fairleigh Dickinson University athlete was playing in the Kingdome Basketball Tournament when tragedy struck.Christopher Sadowski for NY Post
6
Rochford was shot twice, cops said.Christopher Sadowski for NY Post
“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,” he added.

The FDU Knights posted condolences on Instagram about Rochford, a standout power forward and center when he played there from 2011 to 2013.

“FDU is devastated to hear of the tragic passing of former men’s basketball player Kinu Rochford (‘13),” the post reads.

“A standout Knight and leader, Rochford built a legacy in Hackensack. He was 35 years old.”

Rochford told FDU coach Greg Vetrone he would be a workhorse for him if given a chance, he told The Post in 2012. Rochford was right. He averaged 9.3 points per game and hauled in 6.8 boards while starting 20 games.

“I realized it’s [about] preparation,” Rochford told The Post at the time about the transition to Division I basketball. “It’s not like a [regular] game. They scout you real well, your ins and outs.”

6
A man and a woman were wounded and taken to a local hospital in stable condition, cops said.Kyle Mazza/Shutterstock
6
There were no arrests, cops said, and the motive wasn’t clear.Christopher Sadowski for NY Post
The 6’6″ Rochford, who played high school ball at James Madison in Brooklyn and also had a stint at now-shuttered college Globe Institute of Technology, began playing professionally in 2013 and won the Lithuanian National Basketball League championship in 2017 with Garonne Sūduva-Mantinga.

He also played professionally in France, Kosovo, Israel, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

He was booted from the British Basketball Championship team the Plymouth Raiders after he tested positive for taking banned substances in 2018, according to the Western Morning News in England.

His last pro gig was with Golden Eagle Ylli in the Kosovo Basketball Superleague in 2021.

It is believed that the drugs were recreational, not performance enhancing, the newspaper reported.

A slew of NBA stars have played at the Kingdome tournament, including Ex-Knicks Tracy McGrady, David Lee and Metta World Peace; and former Syracuse University legend and ex-New Jersey Net Pearl Washington.

Ronnie Francis, who coaches the BK Stompers basketball team in Brooklyn, has known Rochford and his family for decades.

“He had the work ethic,” Francis said. “He ended up turning that into college scholarships and an overseas career.”

Francis just coached Rochford in a game Wednesday, he said.

“I just had to tell his mother what happened,” he said. “It’s the hardest thing I ever had to do. She was crying and screaming for her son.”

A man at the Harlem tourney – where a mural painted on the court’s surface a day earlier showed Knicks legend Walt Frazier passing the NBA championship trophy to point guard Jalen Brunson — told The Post more needs to be done to stop gunplay in the neighborhood.

“I got kids running around these projects,” he said. “We need more police (on) patrol.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/07/11/us-news/basketball-player-killed-at-packed-harlem-tourney/