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The case of Amoud
Diallo
Just after midnight February 4, 1999, four New York City cops took 41 shots at a street
peddler named Amoud Diallo and the press then accused the shooting as racial. The four undercover police officers
from the Street Crime Unit cruised down Wheeler Avenue in an unmarked car.
The Street Crime unit aggressively sought out illegal guns. Since their
inception homicides had dropped 75%, they made 45,000 frisks in two years and
9,500 arrests, 2,500 were for illegal guns. One illegal gun arrest for every 18
stops making the work dangerous.
The unit was looking for an armed rapist responsible for up to 51
assaults. They spotted Diallo who matched the description pacing nervously and
peering into the windows of an apartment building. Officers Carroll and
McMellon identified themselves and asked Diallo to stop and raise his hands
however he attempted to run and get inside the building. In turning away
Diallo reached into his pocket and pulled out a what seemed to be a gun although
he only carried a wallet and a pager. Carrol shouted "Gun, He's got a gun". McMellon who followed Diallo
up the stairs feared being shot point blank and fired three shots falling back
down the stairs with such force that he broke his tailbone. The other
officers thinking McMellon was shot unloaded their weapons. Their 9mm
solid bullets failed to bring Diallo down prone and the officers continued
firing 41 times.
Although this was a tragic accident there was nothing to indicate
that shooting Amoud Diallo was racial yet the officers were vilified by the press and the
department settled for 3.5 million. Similar cases have happened in
Louisville Kentucky where totally naked persons or persons in handcuffs have
been shot in justifiable homicide incidents which would be even more difficult
for police to explain as to how they were going for a weapon. The
Prosecutor Eric Warner opened with "We will prove that by the number of shots
fired at very close range, that this man -- who was cornered and killed in the
vestibule of his home -- that these four defendants intended to kill him, and
therefore are guilty of murder," The criminal trial took exactly 30 days
to acquit and closed the crime unit which had saved so many lives.
Every situation is different this is for
information only and this is not legal advice.
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