February 9, 2009

Diallo Shot While Down

Doc traces path of bullets, gets grilled on body  position

By TARA GEORGE
Daily News Staff Writer

Amadou Diallo was already paralyzed on the floor as cops kept firing at the unarmed man, the coroner who autopsied his body testified yesterday.

Three of the 19 bullets that struck Diallo hit his legs and feet at angles that suggested he must have been on the ground when he was shot, said Dr. Joseph Cohen, who was Bronx medical examiner at the time of the shooting.

One of the shots — Wound R — entered the bottom of his right foot through his right middle toe and exited through the toe's top, Cohen testified, holding Diallo's right high-top sneaker as he fingered a bullet hole.

"You couldn't be upright with your feet on the ground and sustain that unless someone is under the floor shooting upward," Cohen said.

The coroner wasn't sure exactly how many bullets struck Diallo while he was prone, suggesting that several may have hit him while he was falling or already down.

But Cohen said he was sure about three bullets, the ones causing Wounds N, R and S.

He was the last and most important witness for the prosecution, as it rested its murder case against the four cops who shot the unarmed African immigrant Feb. 4, 1999, as he stood outside his Bronx building.

Defense attorneys are expected to kick off their case today with civilian witnesses who will say there was no pause in the barrage of gunfire — contradicting prosecution witnesses. One is expected to testify that Diallo acted suspiciously before the shooting.

The defendants, Officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy, are slated to testify in their own defense later in the trial.

Cohen's testimony was critical to the prosecution's case that the cops behaved recklessly because they kept shooting after Diallo was down.

Using diagrams, Cohen said that of the 19 bullets that struck Diallo, 16 passed through his body and three lodged inside him.

Most of the bullets, he said, flew at Diallo from his left side; three hit his lower legs and one punctured his chest. The shot that pierced his chest — Wound A — is the most important to the prosecution's case.

Cohen said it hit Diallo early in the barrage, piercing his aorta and clipping his spine, critically wounding him and paralyzing him from the waist down.

He said it sent 45% of Diallo's blood — about 2 1/2 quarts — rushing into his chest cavity.

"I believe it was inflicted early on in the sequence [of shots]," Cohen said.

He concluded this, he said, because there was hardly any blood on Diallo's clothes and at the crime scene, indicating that the aorta — which sends blood through the body — must have been severed early on.

Cohen gave a shot-by-shot analysis:

Under cross-examination by attorney John Patten, who represents Carroll, Cohen admitted that crime-scene pictures of Diallo's body show his right foot pointing away from the cops — contradicting his theory on Wound S.

Cohen then postulated that Diallo's body may have been moved before the pictures were taken — a theory that had not been mentioned by any of the prosecution witnesses.

"Give me one ounce of proof that that body was moved," Patten said, his voice rising.

"If the body was not moved, I would be wrong," Cohen said.

Meanwhile, it became clear from Cohen's testimony yesterday that two of the three bullets lodged in Diallo's body came from Carroll's gun, including the one that caused Wound S.

Another bullet found in Diallo's abdomen also was from Carroll's gun.

He is the one who shouted "Gun," mistaking Diallo's wallet for a weapon. He fired all 16 rounds in his gun, as did McMellon. Boss fired five shots and Murphy, four — a total of 41.

Diallo's mother, Kadiatou, was not in her usual place in the front row of Albany Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi's courtroom yesterday. Her lawyers said they had advised her to stay at her hotel because of the graphic retelling of her son's death.

But Diallo's father, Saikou, did attend. "I came because I wanted to see what happened," he said. "It was difficult."

Once the jurors were dismissed for the day, defense attorneys asked the judge to throw out the charges against their clients on the grounds there was not enough proof to support the charges. Teresi said he would reserve decision.

Deadly Anatomy

Of the 19 bullets that struck Amadou Diallo, three in particular may be critical to the prosecution’s case:

BULLET A: According to forensic testimony yesterday, Diallo was paralyzed by one of the first bullets fired. It entered his aorta, clipped his spinal cord and exited the left side of his back.

BULLET G: Entered the left side of his back, perforating his spinal cord, spleen and right lung and liver, and exited near his right armpit. It suggests he was struck while falling down.

BULLET R: Entered the front of Diallo’s right middle toe and exited through the back of the toe — suggesting he was hit while he lay on the floor.

Bullet Key to Defense:

Defense lawyers tried to attack the credibility of the Bronx medical examiner, who admitted making 20 revisions on autopsy report. They also focused on one bullet:

BULLET S: Defense lawyers got the coroner to acknowledge on the stand that crime-scene photographs do not jibe with his theory on this bullet. Coroner then postulated that Diallo’s body must have been moved — a theory not supported by any witness or evidence.