25 Years Ago Amadou Diallo Died At Hands Of NYPD

Before George Floyd, before Eric Garner, before Sean Bell, before Rekia Boyd, before the Black Lives Matter movement, there was Amadou Diallo.

According to History, Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, was shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City Police who allegedly believed he was a suspect they had been tailing. The officers were all members of a controversial unit, the Street Crimes Unit, which was eventually shuttered after the police went on trial.

Feb. 4 marks 25 years since the tragic murder of Diallo. NYPD officers Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon, Kenneth Boss, and Richard Murphy instructed Diallo to show his hands, and as he reached for his wallet, Carroll instructed his fellow officers that he had a gun, and they opened fire. The officers continued to fire after Diallo’s body hit the ground, riddling his body with 19 bullets. Diallo died within minutes.

Despite the officers continually changing their stories on exactly who they thought Diallo was, and the public outcry about the case, an Albany, NY, jury found the officers not guilty. Diallo’s father, Saikou Diallo, referred to the verdict as a “second killing” of his son, while the New York City Mayor at the time, David Dinkins, cautioned that the verdict sent the wrong message. “This will send the wrong message to those members of the Street Crime Unit who walk around saying, ‘We own the night.’”

Following a wrongful death lawsuit against the city in 2004, Diallo’s family received a $3 million settlement. 

As People Magazine reports, Kadiatou Diallo, Diallo’s mother, has remained an outspoken critic of law enforcement. Kadiatou spoke to PIX 11 following Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of Floyd. “There’s no time for celebration,” Kadiatou said. “There’s time for work. To put in the work that needed to be done, so we can stop seeing these cases time and time again.”

Working for justice is something she is familiar with, in 2001 she established a foundation in her son’s name. The Amadou Diallo Foundation seeks to honor her son’s memory through the implementation of education programs aimed at identifying, nurturing, and supporting promising education students, particularly students of African descent who are making the transition from high school to college. Kadiatou established the foundation based largely on the last words she remembers her son saying to her, “Mom, I’m going to college.” In 2019, she told NY1 that her son would have dedicated his life to helping people, saying, “If he was alive today, I know he would be a parent, he would be an entrepreneur, he would be helping people.”

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