(Originally published by the Daily News on Feb. 5, 1999. This story was written by Rafael A. Olmeda and John Marzulli.)
An unarmed Bronx man was gunned down at close range yesterday by four plainclothes cops who fired 41 bullets prompting a criminal investigation by the Bronx district attorney.
Amadou Diallo, 22, a street peddler who immigrated from Guinea in West Africa, was pronounced dead at the scene, his bullet-riddled body crumpled faceup in the well-lighted vestibule of his building on Wheeler Ave. in Soundview.
AMADOU DIALLO’S MOTHER FINALLY FINDS PEACE 17 YEARS AFTER SON’S SLAYING BY NYPD
His wallet and a beeper lay next to him.
Two of the cops Police Officers Edward McMellon, 26, and Sean Carroll, 35 didn’t stop firing until the 16-bullet cartridges in their 9-mm. handguns were spent.
Three of the cops have been involved in prior shootings, one of them a Halloween incident that left a man dead.
None of the four officers involved in the 12:45 a.m. shooting has given an account of the incident, which left bullet casings scattered on the walkway outside the building, a few feet from the front door.
More than a dozen bullet holes scarred the walls and an inner door of the vestibule; others were found near apartment doors, and one lodged in the living room wall of Diallo’s first-floor apartment. There were no civilian witnesses to the shooting, police said.
But for the many people including some cops who gathered yesterday at the victim’s apartment, Diallo’s death seemed an obvious, horrible error.
“The police told me it was a mistake,” said Momodou Kujabi, Diallo’s roommate, who was asked by police to identify the body.
According to official police accounts, the four officers, who are assigned to the department’s prestigious street-crime unit, were investigating a rape pattern in the area.
About 12:30 a.m., the cops had some sort of encounter with Diallo near his home. A few minutes later, the shooting began, police said.
“We don’t know what they thought,” Inspector Michael Collins, an NYPD spokesman, said of the four cops. “All four exited their vehicle and approached [Diallo].”
Many neighbors said they heard the gunfire and ducked for cover.
One neighbor said he looked out his window and saw one cop with his gun drawn, screaming an obscenity. Another neighbor said she saw a cop throw his cap down in disgust.
“The police don’t have any reason to shoot someone so many times,” said Demba Sanyang, 39. “We need an explanation. We are ready to pursue this to the highest levels.”
Referring to the officers, Police Commissioner Howard Safir said last night, “I’m hoping they’ll come forward and tell us what happened, but at this point it’s very hard for me to make a judgment because I have very few facts.”
He added, “It’s a lot of rounds.”
Mayor Giuliani urged the community to “be patient. . . . We all have to wait and react to facts.” He would not comment on the shooting.
An assistant medical examiner spent more than 10 hours performing an autopsy on Diallo’s body yesterday and had still not finished tallying the number and direction of gunshot wounds.
Diallo had returned home from selling his wares hats, gloves and videarchio tapes on 14th St. in Manhattan about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. His roommates had gone to sleep, and it is unclear why Diallo left the apartment.
“Sometimes he would go out for a bottle of juice or something to eat,” Kujabi said.
Police said the victim had no criminal record. He entered this country about three years ago, and several relatives said he had sought political asylum, but that could not be confirmed yesterday.
The four cops McMellon, Carroll, Kenneth Boss, 27, and Richard Murphy, 26 were placed on desk duty pending an investigation. All were treated at an area hospital for trauma and ringing in their ears.
In 1997, Boss shot and killed a shotgun-wielding man in Brooklyn. Carroll returned fire at a gunman in August 1997 in the Bronx, but no one was hit. McMellon wounded a gunman in Brooklyn in June, and a 9-mm. gun was recovered.
“We don’t want them forced to answer questions, because that may interfere with a subsequent criminal investigation,” said Steven Reed, a spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson.
Steven Worth, a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association attorney, said “a full explanation will reveal that the officers acted properly.”
