CBS2 Classics

THE BRONX (CBS) ― Just after midnight on Feb. 4, 1999, four white police officers in plainclothes approach a man standing in the dark entranceway of an apartment building in The Bronx.

A minute later in a barrage of 41 bullets, an unarmed immigrant named Amadou Diallo lies dead and New York is plunged into months of protests, civil disobedience and outrage over accusations of racial profiling by police.

Click watch a CBS2 Classic the day Amadou Diallo was shot.

At about 12:45AM, Amodou Diallo was standing in the dark doorway of his building at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx after returning from a meal. He was 23 years old and had spent about a year in the United States, coming from his native Guineau to study computer science. But he had not yet enrolled in a school; instead he sold videotapes, caps, gloves and other items along the sidewalk on 14th Street in Manhattan.

Soundview is one of those hardscrabble neighborhoods incorrectly referred to as the South Bronx. Many immigrants from third-world countries walk its often-dangerous streets and live in housing - private or project - that has seen better days.

For several weeks a rapist had been preying on women in Soundview and the NYPD was determined to catch him. Four officers assigned to the elite Street Crime Unite (SCU) went on patrol that night with a sketch of the suspect.

SCU was made up of "active" cops, those with high numbers of arrests and unblemished records. They were dispatched to high-crime areas from Randalls Island in plainclothes and unmarked cars. Members always rememberd a fallen one of their own, Officer Kevin Gillespie, who was shot and killed after he and his partner stopped a car at an intersestion in The Bronx on March 14, 1996.

That night in 1999, Officers Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, Richard Murphy and Edward McMellon cruised the streets in Soundview looking for the rapist. They saw a man in a building entranceway and went around Wheeler Avenue again, seeing him still there.

Click here to watch a CBS2 Classic about the four police officers who fired at Diallo

The four got out of their car and walked up to the stoop. At trial in 2000, testimony revealed one of the officers saw the man draw something from his pocket and shouted "He's got a gun!" and all drew their weapons. One of the officers then tripped on the step of the stoop, according to testimony, and the four started shooting at the figure in the hallway.

All told, 41 shoots were fired; two of the officers emptied their 9mm revolvers. Diallo was struck 19 times and died in the doorway.

Click here to watch a CBS2 Classic showing Amadou Diallo's mother, Kadiatou, visiting the scene of his death

Within days, demonstrations began outside the building on Wheeler Avenue. Soon they spread to Wall Street and over several weeks thousands of people - activists, immigrants, politicians and others, black and white - gathered each day outside Police Headquarters and committed civil disobedience. Hundreds were arrested.

Click here to hear watch a CBS2 Classic showing Mayor Giuliani responding to claims of police brutality

On Feb. 14, Diallo's wood coffin was carried into the mosque on East 96th St. for a funeral service. Later, the body was flown home to Guineau for burial.

Days later a grand jury in The Bronx started hearing evidence in the case. In March, the four officers were indicted on charges of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment. The officers pleaded not guilty and were released on $100,000 bail. They were suspended from their jobs with the NYPD.

Over the next month, the demonstrations continued and grew. Marches were held across the Brooklyn Bridge and at the courhouse in The Bronx. Mayor Rudy Giuliani ordered new rules on how cops should treat citizens and suspects. A suspect in the series of rapes in Soundview was arrested in April.

In December, a court ordered a change of venue from The Bronx to Albany for the officers' trial. A jury of four African-Americans and eight whites was seated in February 2000. In March, after three days of deliberations, the four officers were found not guilty on all counts.

Click here to watch a CBS2 Classic about New Yorkers following jury deliberations in the trial of the police officers

In the aftermath of it all, the SCU was disbanded and the figure of Amadou Diallo became for awhile a cultural symbol. He was the subject of a song, "American Skin (41 Shots) by Bruce Springsteen and others such as Immortal Technique , Wyclef Jean, Mos Def and Lauryn Hill.

Amadou's mother, Kadiatou and his stepfather, Sankarella, filed suit against the city charging wrongful death, racial profiling and gross negligence. They later accepted a settlement of $3 million.

Of the four officers, two transferred to the Fire Department, and two remain with the NYPD on modified assignments.

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