NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department says a 38-year-old man has been shot to death outside a Brooklyn elementary school.

Investigators say Thursday Gerald Cummings may have been fatally shot after confronting young men who had days earlier stolen his son’s baseball hat.

Longtime friend Earl Saunders tells the New York Daily News that Cummings was just defending his 16-year-old son.

The newspaper says the teenage son called his father late Wednesday when he noticed the men who had previously robbed him.

That’s when investigators believe a confrontation ensued.

Authorities say Cummings was found late Wednesday night with gunshot wounds to his head and back.

No arrests have been made.