On Friday, outside the parole office in Manhattan, families of slain NYPD officers gave victim impact statements to the parole board asking the board to not grant parole to convicted slayer Anthony Bottom. (Credit: Craig Ruttle)
The families of two NYPD officers slain nearly 47 years ago spoke with state parole board officials Friday to oppose any release of Anthony Bottom, one of the Black Panther members convicted of murdering the cops.
Bottom, 56, who is a serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for the killings of officers Anthony Piagentini and his partner, Waverly Jones, in May 1971, comes up for an interview before the parole board the week of June 11, officials said.
Last month, the board caused a furor when it released — over the objection of NYPD officials and hundreds of thousands of members of the public — Herman Bell, a reputed Black Liberation Army member who was Bottom’s accomplice in the killing of the two cops.
Speaking with reporters outside the parole board’s Manhattan offices, Diane Piagentini said the families of the officers didn’t want a repetition of what happened in the Bell case. She was joined by her daughter Mary and Manny Jones and Gwenna Wright, the siblings of Jones.
“We are here today united, united, the Jones family and Piagentini family, to make sure that Anthony Bottom doesn’t get released,” Diane Piagentini said. “It was atrocious what the parole board did with Herman Bell last month. That man should never have been released.”
Piagentini said parole should never be granted in any cop killer case.
The families of two NYPD officers slain nearly 47 years ago spoke with state parole board officials Friday to oppose any release of Anthony Bottom, one of the Black Panther members convicted of murdering the cops.
Bottom, 56, who is a serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for the killings of officers Anthony Piagentini and his partner, Waverly Jones, in May 1971, comes up for an interview before the parole board the week of June 11, officials said.
Last month, the board caused a furor when it released — over the objection of NYPD officials and hundreds of thousands of members of the public — Herman Bell, a reputed Black Liberation Army member who was Bottom’s accomplice in the killing of the two cops.
Speaking with reporters outside the parole board’s Manhattan offices, Diane Piagentini said the families of the officers didn’t want a repetition of what happened in the Bell case. She was joined by her daughter Mary and Manny Jones and Gwenna Wright, the siblings of Jones.
“We are here today united, united, the Jones family and Piagentini family, to make sure that Anthony Bottom doesn’t get released,” Diane Piagentini said. “It was atrocious what the parole board did with Herman Bell last month. That man should never have been released.”
Piagentini said parole should never be granted in any cop killer case.