February 15, 2000
Cops Tell Their Story
Officer's frantic plea: 'Please, don't die!'
By TARA
GEORGE
Daily News Staff Writer
In riveting court testimony, two of the cops who fatally shot Amadou Diallo described their panic as he appeared to pull a gun on them — and their horror as they realized they had killed an unarmed man.
Officer Sean Carroll sobbed as he described trying to revive the 22-year-old African immigrant, who only seconds before the cop had believed to be a gunman in a bulletproof vest taking aim at his partner.
"I told him: "Don't die! Don't die!" Carroll recalled, mopping tears from his eyes. "I just held his hands and rubbed his face and said, 'Please don't die.'"
Carroll and his partner, Officer Edward McMellon, testified that they mistook Diallo's leather wallet for a weapon and fired because they thought they were going to die.
"I heard Sean yell: 'He's got a gun!'" McMellon said. "I screamed [to Diallo], 'What are you doing?' and I fired my gun."
Diallo's last moments alive were recounted as Carroll and McMellon became the first of the four officers on trial for murder to publicly tell their versions of what happened the night of Feb. 4, 1999.
The other defendants, Officers Richard Murphy and Kenneth Boss, are set to testify today about the shooting of Diallo, who was hit by 19 bullets in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building.
None of the officers — who face up to life in jail if convicted — testified before the grand jury.
Carroll, 36, took the stand shortly after 10 a.m., wearing a dark suit, white shirt and gray tie. He said he first spotted Diallo as the four plainclothes cops drove past 1157 Wheeler Ave. in an unmarked red Ford Taurus.
He said Diallo appeared suspicious because he was looking up and down the block, peeking his head out as if he didn't want to be seen.
"He slinked back into the vestibule," Carroll said. "As he backed up he kept a vigilant eye on us."
He said Diallo fit the general description of a serial rapist on the loose and that he also thought Diallo may have been a lookout for a push-in robbery.
As they approached, the cops testified, McMellon held out his badge and said, "Police Department, City of New York. Can I have a word with you, please?"
But Diallo — standing in what the cops described as a dimly lit vestibule — ignored their commands. Carroll said Diallo then stepped backward and started digging at something on his right side.
"I heard Officer McMellon repeating, 'Police, show us your hands,'" Carroll said. "We said it clearly. He just didn't want to listen."
Then, the cops said, Diallo ran to the end of the vestibule, tugged frantically at the door and turned toward them with a black object in his hands.
"My prior arrests dictated to me that this person was pulling a gun," Carroll said. "I just said, 'Gun! He's got a gun.'"
The officers said they started firing at the same time — each saying he had no idea who pulled off the first shot.
"Believing that he had just pulled and was about to fire a gun at my partner, I fired my weapon," Carroll testified, taking off his glasses, covering his weeping face in his hands.
He said he kept shooting into the narrow vestibule because McMellon fell down — and Diallo did not.
McMellon said he lost his footing and toppled backward off the stoop, falling onto the sidewalk. But he kept firing, keeping focused on Diallo, who was still standing.
Carroll said he fired at Diallo's legs, thinking it was the only way to bring down the man he thought was wearing a bulletproof vest. But Carroll and McMellon denied firing at Diallo once he was on the ground, as prosecutors charge.
After the 41st and final bullet, Diallo was down. When the smoke cleared, the cops went into the vestibule and realized their mistake. "I looked down at it, and I seen it was a wallet," Carroll said. "It was just a wallet. ... I said, 'Where's the f---ing gun?'"
"Sean started to cry," said McMellon, 27. "I stood there and I watched Sean and then I walked out of the vestibule."
Carroll said officers are not taught to distinguish between a gun and some innocuous object, and he even believed Diallo might have had a "wallet gun" until he examined it.
The two officers' stories held up well on cross-examination, as prosecutors were unable to point out any discrepancies.
Prosecutor Don Levin pressed Carroll on what was so suspicious about a man standing on his front stoop.
"Looking up and down the block is not a crime, is it, officer?" Levin asked.
"No, it is not," Carroll responded.
During parts of his testimony, Diallo's mother, Kadiatou, buried her head in her hands and wept softly. The dead man's father, Saikou, betrayed no emotion as he sat in the rear on the right of Albany Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi's courtroom.
Across the aisle, Carroll's family and McMellon's parents sat surrounded by the other officers' relatives.
Outside the courthouse afterward, McMellon's lawyer, Stephen Worth, told reporters that anyone listening to the testimony would have to conclude that the officers believed they were acting in self-defense — "or they all went crazy at the same time."
"These are experienced, calm, trained police officers," Worth said. "It is only when there is no other alternative that they use their weapons."
Carroll's attorney, John Patten, said of his client's testimony, "He's at peace with himself, and he told the truth as he saw it."
2 Officers on the Stand
Quotes by Officer Sean Carroll:
"It appeared to me that he had just pulled a weapon up and had drawn a weapon on my partner. ... Believing he had fired at my partner, I fired my weapon."
"The only way to take this guy out if he's wearing a vest is to start shooting at his legs."
"When I removed this object from his hand, which I believed to be a gun, I grabbed it. It was soft. I looked down ... and saw it was a wallet. ... I said, 'Where's the f---ing gun? Where's the f---ing gun?'"
"I told [Diallo], 'Don't die! Don't die! Keep breathing!'"
"I didn't want to die. ... I backstepped as fast as I could. ... I felt myself start to fall backward. ... I was trying to fire as fast as I could."
"From where I was on the sidewalk, I could see his hand outstretched with a black gun — what I thought to be a black gun. I kept firing."
