Amadou diallo was shot on the 4th of February in 1999. His parents stood up for him in a court case. He was shot by four NYPD officers, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy. They shot 41 times at him.Amadou's parents have sued the city of New York for £81 million.
The mother, Kadiatou and father, Saikou, are asking £20 for wrongfull death, £20 million for pain and suffering and £1 million for each of the 41 bullets fired at their son. 19 bullets out of the 41 fired ones struck Diallo, who was unarmed and was just standing in his apartment in the Bronx where he lived.
Eventually they only got £20 million.
The four officers were acquitted of all charges in the shooting. They claimed that their shooting was an accident and not a murder. All four testified that they couldn't see a lot around the hall and they thought Amadou was reaching for a gun. That is why they opened fire.
Beyond Diallo's parents the officers acted in a reckles way and disregarded the rights and safety of their son. After all, they approached Amadou without any lawful justification and still they shot 41 times.
This is a bit twofold, on the one hand the officers really thought that amadou was going to take a gun. Nowadays these acts are not so rarely anymore and perhaps they had a reason because they were clearly watching the neighbourhood for something and in their eyes, Amadou was a bit shady. But on the other hand. How could they be so sure of seeing that gun? Of thinking he was going to take a gun. Ok, we live in a dangerous world where you don't know what you might expect. But it's exaggerated that you should see everybody as perpetrators. If everybody thinks like this, we wouldn't be here right now... Being an officer is a risky job but shooting has serieus consequences and it's not just something you usually do. If I was the jugde I should punish them in a way, perhaps not by imprisonment but by something else, a training or recall their function for a while.All that because for the parents of Amadou this must be hell. 4 officers shoot their sun "for no reason" but they got away without a punishment. They lost their son en the officers lost nothing. It just not right.
Sources: http://www.courttv.com/archive/national/diallo/041800_suit_ctv.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/amadou_diallo/index.html
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(Reaction by Ben Van Laere)
It is a drama that Amadou Diallo was killed for nothing. It is strange that the police officers shot 41 bullets. When they weren’t completely sure of Amadou holding a gun they can always shoot in the air or in his leg but certainly not 41 times. We don’t know the situation but shooting 41 bullets with 4 police officers at one man is a bit excessively.
I agree with the things Greet said. The police officers should be punished somehow. Maybe by giving them an office job. They should never carry a gun anymore.
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