Racial Tension Grips N.Y. in Wake of Feb. 4 Killing

On a cool winter night, Amadou Diallo took a walk outside his Bronx apartment and returned after 12:45 a.m. This is all that is known of his last moments, except that he was suddenly cut down by a hail of police gunfire, 41 shots in all, as he stood in the hallway.

Seconds later, the four police officers, who said they were investigating a serial rapist in the area, discovered that the 22-year-old West African immigrant was unarmed. As they hurriedly radioed for assistance, several of the officers appeared dazed and stunned, according to police sources and onlookers who gathered at the scene Feb. 4.

Although few details have emerged since then, the story has shocked New Yorkers and triggered national protests. There have been furious street demonstrations by African American leaders and bitter criticisms of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has been accused of running a police department that routinely brutalizes and mistreats blacks and other minorities. In recent days, the story has blown impeachment off the front pages of the city’s tabloids and dominated local television and radio coverage.

Indeed, it has become a New York media circus and a defining moment in Giuliani’s administration: Diallo’s family has embraced the Rev. Al Sharpton as their spokesman and retained O.J. Simpson attorneys Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Barry Scheck to represent them. Calling for the four officers’ arrests, Sharpton told a rally that the shooting “was not a police action, it was a police execution. . . . His [Diallo’s] body was riddled with bullets. Not from hoodlums, not from thugs, but from people we pay to protect us.”

For his part, Giuliani has tried to keep a cool profile, vowing a prompt investigation and calling for public calm until more facts are known. He has expressed remorse for the apparently senseless shooting of a man who had no criminal record.

But the 19 bullets that hit Diallo, a soft-spoken street vendor from Guinea, have cast a shadow over the record of a Republican mayor who has won national plaudits for greatly reducing crime in the nation’s largest city--and who harbors ambition for higher office.

“I feel terrible about what happened,” Giuliani told reporters at a City Hall news conference last week. “We’re working very, very hard to assist the family and everyone in the community to understand it. But I am not going to subscribe to a notion that the police officers in New York City, as some general matter, are acting improperly.”

Seeking to quell rising criticism, the mayor unveiled statistics showing the number of police shootings in New York are down; city officers fired 856 shots in 1998, compared with 1,040 the year before, he said, and the 19 fatal shootings last year is the lowest since 1985.

“There is a tendency of some people in our society to blame the police in broad strokes that is just as vicious a prejudice as any other prejudice,” the mayor added, defending the department’s overall record.

Yet critics are not convinced, suggesting that Giuliani has turned a deaf ear to minorities. From 1993 to 1997, critics noted, new charges of police misconduct rose 45%--from 1,567 to 2,266 incidents--and they said the mayor’s refusal to address this issue shows he has not built sufficient bridges to blacks, Latinos and other minorities.

“I certainly am not blaming Mayor Giuliani or Police Commissioner [Howard] Safir for the tragedy that took place,” said Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, who is black. “But there is the sad reality that the police department treats some communities in this city with more respect and consideration than others . . . we need City Hall to listen more.”

As the investigation continues, the four officers involved in the shooting have been assigned to desk jobs, which is customary police procedure. Although they have not spoken to any local law enforcement officials yet--or to members of the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI, which are also investigating the case--the police officers are expected to testify before a Bronx grand jury sometime this week. Sources close to the officers suggest they may have fired in the belief that Diallo was reaching for a gun and did not respond to police orders.

The controversy is especially acute because the four officers are part of an elite, 380-member Street Crime Unit, which has been in the forefront of New York’s battle to reduce crime. Roaming high-crime areas in unmarked vehicles, the plainclothes officers have been credited with major arrests; they have also been criticized as brutal enforcers.

Sean Carroll, one of the four, told the New York Daily News in a brief interview: “I’m just deeply sorry for everything that’s occurred. We’re going to cooperate 100%.” But those comments seemed to inflame the situation even more.

Giuliani has been rebuffed twice in his efforts to meet with Diallo’s parents, who flew here from Africa to bring their son home and are constantly at Sharpton’s side. Mindful of public perceptions, the mayor canceled a fund-raising trip this weekend to Texas, where he was supposed to be the guest of Gov. George W. Bush.

None of this has quieted a rising chorus of protest. On Friday, Giuliani was heckled as he attended a memorial service for Diallo at a Muslim mosque in Harlem; activists plan more demonstrations in coming days.

“I have no patience for that megalomaniac Giuliani,” said a visibly angry Carol Taylor, at Diallo’s memorial service. “He is sitting at the head of an organization which is systematically engaging in a slaughter of black African males. The mayor can burn in hell.”

The Diallo case is only the most recent protest over police brutality in New York. Last year, the city was rocked by the story of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was allegedly sodomized by police with a toilet plunger in a Brooklyn precinct station. The trial of those officers on civil rights charges begins next month, and the case, which is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, is expected to draw national attention.

As the city braces for another week of tension, some have said the larger problem lies with white New York officials and residents, who have not generally been part of the protest. Clearly offended, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is black, said Friday that the city’s white leaders would be more outraged “if a horse was shot dead in front of the Plaza Hotel.”

In a New York Times column, Bob Herbert warned: “I don’t believe that most white New Yorkers condone police misconduct, but there have not been nearly enough white voices raised against the atrocities committed by the police. This unfortunate silence is, indeed, a form of encouragement.”

Times researcher Lisa Meyer contributed to this story.