A Brief History
On February 4, 1999, New York City police fired 41 bullets at an unarmed immigrant, Amadou Bailo Diallo, hitting him 19 times!
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find the aftermath of this shooting going across the country like a tidal wave, with cross currents of both support for the police yet condemnation for the officers involved.
Early morning in the Bronx on that tragic day, fate paired Amadou Bailo Diallo, a 23-year-old born in Liberia, with 4 undercover NYPD officers who were on the lookout for a serial rapist known to be armed. With the misfortune of looking similar to the suspect, the innocent and unarmed Diallo was accosted by the officers who say they identified themselves, but that Diallo did not stop and show his hands as directed by them.
Shrouded by a poorly lit doorway, Diallo reached into his clothing and pulled out his wallet, which an officer mistook for him drawing a gun! The officer yelled “gun!”, and the other policemen started shooting. When one of them tripped and fell backwards, the other officers thought he had been shot, and the police barrage did not stop until 41 shots were fired and the hapless immigrant was dead from 19 bullet wounds.
Predictably, this incident set off a firestorm of anti-police fervor across the country and the NYPD was accused of racism, brutality and racial profiling. The officers involved were indicted for 2nd degree murder and tried but were acquitted by a multi-racial jury. (The trial had been moved from New York City because it was thought the officers would not get an impartial jury there.)
One of the officers involved, Kenneth Boss, had previously been involved in a fatal shooting in 1997, that time of an armed suspect. He is the only officer of the 4 who is still active on the NYPD, though he had been given unarmed non-patrol duties after the Diallo incident. In October of 2012, the police commissioner restored Boss’ authority to go armed; in response to which Diallo’s family was not happy, and voiced their protest.
Diallo has been memorialized in numerous books and articles, as well as in a great number songs by popular artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Wyclef Jean and Ziggy Marley.
Something that police critics just do not seem to get, is that if people stand still with their hands plainly visible, they do not get shot! Even with the obvious problems inherent in language barriers, you would think it is obvious not to start yanking something out of your pocket when held at gunpoint. To prevent similar horrible tragedies, perhaps we need to educate school children about how to act when approached by an police or make public service announcements like they do for drugs and drunk driving awareness.
Question for students (and subscribers): Was this shooting justified? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information on guns in America, see…
Baker, James Jay and Wayne Lapierre. Shooting Straight: Telling the Truth About Guns in America. Regnery Publishing, 2002.
Mcelvain, James P. Police Shootings and Citizen Behavior (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship). LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2008.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="1162 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=1162">31 Comments
This is obviously very tragic for both sides. Unfortunately an innocent man had to die because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and accidentally made a poor choice by puling out his wallet. Its also upsetting for the cops because they have to live with killing an innocent man which also gave the NYPD a bad reputation.
What a sad story for both sides involved. It is such a shame that an innocent man had to die due to confusion caused by a high stress situation.
Wow what a sad story..although this man made the mistake of pulling out his wallet which was easily mistaken to be a gun, the police should have been way more careful that this was indeed the man they were looking for. And they should have been sure that he did pull out a gun. It’s also rediculous that 41 shots were fired and he was hit 19 times! That’s insane. I’m surprised any of these officers is still active on the NYPD.
When the police told him to freeze, he should not have moved. This is a sad story of poor recognition by police and poor judgment by the man shot. Fortunately, the policemen received some type of punishment, but this does not bring Diallo back. Better training for policemen may avoid a tragedy like this, but as we see in the recent case in Cleveland, it still is not totally avoided.
It is tragic that this incident could have been prevented if both sides had just been more aware and more careful in their actions. Let’s hope that measures will be taken to better train both officers and civilians to prevent these situations happening in the future.
That is such a sad story, however he shouldn’t have moved! I can see how that would have been mistaken for reaching for a gun. I think there are mistakes on both sides and it is sad that he died because of it.
Great example to do exactly what the cops tell you to do.
I can understand why the officers reacted the way they did, however lets talk about over kill. There was one of him and four of them was it seriously necessary to fire 41 shots? I think not. The young man should have stopped and held out his hands though. Yes I believe we should teach kids how to act and or react when stopped by the police. The police have a very high stress and highly dangerous job, and with the criminals packing assault riffles and automatics the police cant be too careful or they will get killed. Here’s a thought maybe we should be harder on criminals instead of pampering them. Back in the day a horse thief was hung til death if found guilty, and someone found guilty of murder was hung until death. So instead of letting convicts sit on death row for 20 years euthanize them at least its humane unlike the electric chair.
This is such a tragic story! First lesson here is listen to what cops tell you, but I also don’t think they should have been so quick to pull the trigger.
Wow that is a sad story. I couldn’t begin to image how the family felt hearing Amadou has been shot 19 times. I just hope that the justice system has learned from this tragedy because it is unfair for the innocent to die over a mistaken identity.
I get that a person pulling out a wallet can be mistaken as pulling out a gun, buti think the police should’ve made sure that he wasn’t pulling out a gun. Because of the carelessness of the NYPD cops, it cost an innocent man his life.
Another example of the fine line between police officers trying to protect and serve and an over zealous use of force- it’s personally hard to fault these men (I have never been in a seemingly life threatening situation of this magnitude) but at the end of the day an innocent life was taken. I wonder what the outcome would be if a citizen mistakenly murdered a police officer he deemed to be a threat?
What an incredibly sad story. I think that the police should’ve been more careful instead of coming to a conclusion so quickly.
This is a sad story and both sides were at fault.
Tragic
I’m sure there is some missing information. 41 shots where fired and the Amadau hit 19 times. Not really necessary if you ask me.
I think that this is just another occurrence of senseless police violence. Sure, we can blame the language barrier but if we are going to be a nation built on immigrants and the American Dream then we need to be accommodating of immigrants and try to understand them better.
This is a very sensitive article, police are here to protect the community and without them order would not be controlled. This is not something that can be dismissed easily but if my fellow Americans a quitted them then I will take their judgment on the matter.
I believe all cops should learn multiple languages. I believe this is a language barrier and tons of occurrences like this could be resolved without death if they knew more languages.
such a sad story…i feel like both sides are at fault
Cases like that are never easy to hear about however, I feel like they shouldn’t have just opened fire on the man.
It seems our police in the United States, at times, act too quickly. however we don’t know how we would re-act if in their shoes. Also our media is to blame also, they always pick up on the bad stories and the good many policemen do is never revealed to the public.
This should’t ever happen.
It is sad to see that this happened to him. It is true if he would have stopped at put his hands up they would have figured out it was not the person they were looking for. There are so many things that could have happened. This is just a tragic event.
that was so unnecessary did they have to shoot that many times? So they see a black man because they “think” hes who theyre looking for and just open fire
I understand the man and the police were both scared in this situation. I don’t believe this is a ‘race’ issue. Just miss communication. Police should have told the man to walk out of the door with hands up until they could further identify the man. Wow. tragic story. But I guarantee those police officers no longer have there jobs.
Seriously…. after 5 shots you would realize that youre just shooting an already dead person. unnecessary
I think that all of those police officers should have lost their job. There should have been no more than five bullets fired. One from the victim, if he had a gun which he obviously didn’t, and one from each cop. 41 shots is an insane number of shots to be fired on one man.
This article is from 1999 and there are still situations today that individuals are shot because they didn’t put their hands up. After reading this and many other more recent articles, one would think there wouldn’t be any delay on a person putting there hand up when told
How horrible… a truly unfortunate event! — DAVID WARDLE
a big misunderstanding by both parties, very unfortunate