On this date in 2004, the city of New York agreed to pay $3 million to the family of Amadou Diallo. He was an unarmed West African immigrant shot to death by police nearly five years earlier.
Representing New York, Michael Cardozo, corporation counsel for the city, said in a statement announcing the settlement: “The mayor, the police department, and the city deeply regret what occurred and extend their sympathies to the Diallo family.”
Diallo was killed in the entrance hall of his Bronx apartment building on Feb. 4, 1999, by undercover officers who said they mistook his wallet for a gun. The officers fired 41 shots, hitting the street vendor from Guinea 19 times and making the killing an international symbol of police brutality.
