A woman who had a child with former NBA star World B. Free was running to help her niece’s boyfriend when she was shot dead on a Brooklyn street, sources said.

Kerrie Johnson, 51, was shot in the head when a thug opened fire on Clifton Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. He was one of two men assaulting Laquan Williams, who has been dating Johnson’s niece.

Johnson has a grown son with Free, who grew up in Brooklyn.

“While they haven’t spoken in quite a while, [Free] does want to extend his condolences to her family and friends,” said a spokesman for the Philadelphia 76ers, the team for which Free works.