New York Praying For Peace & Healing

By LISA L. COLANGELO, ALISON GENDAR and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Staff Writers

One of the cops acquitted in the Amadou Diallo shooting thanked God for deliverance yesterday as churchgoers across the city prayed for peace and weighed in on the verdict.

"What I want, you know, is to try and reflect on what's gone on the past few months," Officer Sean Carroll said after attending Mass at Our Lady of Grace Church in West Babylon, L.I.

Police Officer Sean Carroll and his daughter return to their Babylon, L.I. home after church yesterday.

Other parishioners offered Carroll words of reassurance.

"We're with you all the way," an elderly man said. "God bless you. Good luck," a woman in her 50s said.

Smiling weakly and nervously twisting his wedding ring, Carroll replied, "Thank you."

The Rev. Thomas Saloy made no mention of the trial during the noon Mass. But before the service, he spoke privately with Carroll and his family.

"This is Sean's personal sanctuary," Saloy said. "He has a right to privacy and his own thoughts."

In Harlem, meanwhile, the Rev. Calvin Butts was unsparing in his denunciation of Friday's verdict that exonerated the officers — Carroll, Kenneth Boss, Richard Murphy and Edward McMellon.

Butts told parishioners at the Abyssinian Baptist Church that the time for "calm and reasonableness" was over.

"This is a time for action," he said. "This is a time for protest. This is a time for hard work."

Butts also hurled bitter words at Mayor Giuliani.

"You call for calm, and let's see if you can get it," he said, telling worshipers: "You take yourself to the precinct and tell the cops what they did is wrong. You call on your mayor."

Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota denounced Butts' words.

"What kind of minister is this that viciously attacks and stokes the flames of hatred in our city?" Lhota asked. "Ministers should be trying to heal the city. ... It's hard to believe these statements are from a man of the cloth."

In the Bronx, a block from where Diallo was gunned down last year, the faithful at Emanuel Pentecostal Faith Church were praying for Diallo's family — and the four cops.

"With so much pain and anguish in the streets, Lord, we need healing," church elder Odelle Bradley said. "There's so much unrest. There's so much trouble."

Parishioner Kenny Dorsey, 33, said he was "praying for both sides.

"I pray that the Diallo family won't continue to hold their bitterness toward the cops forever," he added. "We need to live together."

At St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy said New Yorkers should "reexamine tendencies toward fear, our tendencies toward prejudices ... and our tendencies toward violence."

With Ruth Bashinsky, Jose Martinez and Joe Mahoney