N.Y. Mayor Jeered at Funeral of Man Killed by Police

Mourners booed and jeered Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani outside a mosque where services were held Friday for a West African immigrant whose killing by police has heightened tensions between the black community and City Hall.

A grim-faced Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir arrived at the Islamic Center of New York just as the funeral for Amadou Diallo was ending. The mayor and Safir were told to come at 1:45 p.m., but the memorial began at 1:30 p.m., Giuliani spokeswoman Cristyne Lategano said.

Straining against police barricades, hundreds of overflow mourners taunted Giuliani and Safir as they entered the mosque through a side door. Dozens chanted, “We want justice!”

Diallo, a black 22-year-old street merchant, was killed Feb. 4 when four officers from an elite street-crime unit fired 41 bullets at him inside the vestibule of his South Bronx apartment building, hitting him 19 times. Diallo was unarmed. An attorney for the officers said they believed Diallo had a gun. Police found only a beeper and Diallo’s wallet at the scene.

The still-unexplained killing, which has sparked heated protests calling for the officers’ arrest, is being investigated by a Bronx Grand Jury. U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White disclosed Friday that the FBI and federal criminal and civil rights prosecutors have been investigating since the day after the shooting.

Shortly after the mayor and police commissioner arrived, Diallo’s simple wooden coffin was carried out of the mosque.

The crowd surged forward. “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” they cried, standing on their tiptoes to touch the coffin, which teetered on the pallbearers’ raised hands.

Diallo will be buried in his native country, Guinea.

The slain man’s mother, Kadiadou Diallo, dressed in white mourning garb, remained dry-eyed throughout the two-hour service. “There will be no more tears,” mosque security guard Saana Malik-Newton quoted her as saying. “I did all my crying on the way here.”