Diallo’s ‘Combat Stance’ Led to Shooting, 2 Testify

Echoing other officers’ accounts, two of the four white New York City policemen charged with killing an unarmed black man testified Tuesday that they believed he had dropped into a combat stance with a gun before they fired 41 bullets at him.

Officer Kenneth Boss said he began firing when he saw Amadou Diallo “crouched down low” in the vestibule of a building in the Bronx “in a combat stance. . . . The same one I was taught in the police academy.”

Officer Richard Murphy, who followed Boss to the stand during their trial on murder and reckless endangerment charges, completed the picture.

Murphy said that Diallo, a 22-year-old street vendor, had his right arm extended “with what I thought at the time was a gun.”

When the shooting stopped, Diallo’s gun turned out to be his wallet, and the building turned out to be his home.

“What were you feeling?” prosecutor Donald Levin asked Boss.

“Destroyed,” replied the officer, who earlier told the jury that he had joined the force because “it was something I could do with honor, something to be proud of.”

The testimony of Boss, 28, and Murphy, 27, came as defense lawyers moved toward conclusion of testimony for the two policemen and their fellow officers--Sean Carroll, 36, and Edward McMellon, 27.

The slaying of Diallo--who was struck by 19 of the bullets fired by the officers--ignited widespread protests over the attitude of the police department’s elite street crime unit toward minorities.

All of the defendants are members of that unit. Because of widespread pretrial publicity, the case was shifted to Albany, 150 miles north of the city.

Echoing the testimony of Carroll and McMellon--who appeared as witnesses on Monday--Boss said that the four officers spotted Diallo standing on the front stoop of the building. He then turned abruptly, the officer said, and darted back into the vestibule.

“I jumped out of the [unmarked] car. . . . It was just going to be a chase right now,” Boss told the jury.

The officer said he then heard shouting and gunshots.

“I saw Ed McMellon, he was on the left side of the vestibule, emerge--just come flying down the stairs. It was frantic. It was intense. He was on the ground. Shots were going on,” Boss related.

“Ed was firing his weapon. Sean was firing his weapon into the vestibule. I came running up to Ed.

“At this time he is on the sidewalk. His legs are in front of him. His torso is up. He has his left hand on the sidewalk. He is pushing himself away from the stairs and he is firing his weapon into the vestibule.”

Boss said he looked into the vestibule where Diallo was crouched by the rear wall.

“He has his hand out. He has a gun,” Boss related. “I said, ‘I am going to die.’ I fired my gun.”

Murphy said he also opened fire, pointing the barrel of his automatic pistol at Diallo’s “center mass.”

Seconds later, when the gunfire ended and Diallo lay dying, Boss said he grabbed McMellon’s chest and started feeling it, thinking that he had been shot as well.

“I remember grabbing him. . . . He was in the process of getting up,” the police officer said. McMellon told Boss that he hadn’t been shot.

‘Were you surprised?” Steven Brounstein, Boss’ lawyer, asked.

“Yes, I was,” Boss answered.

During cross-examination, Assistant Dist. Atty. Donald Levin asked Boss a series of questions to determine whether the officers had identified themselves to Diallo, an immigrant from West Africa, before opening fire--and whether he understood.

“Did you consider whether Mr. Diallo spoke English?” Levin asked.

“At that time, what went through my mind was that we had a fleeing suspect,” Boss said. “It didn’t occur to me if he spoke English or not, or whether he was running because he was trying to get away from police, or whether he was afraid of the police. . . . It just looked like he was running.”

Times researcher Lynette Ferdinand contributed to this story.