Policeman Convicted in Immigrant Shooting

(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) Bryan Conroy, the police officer who shot an unarmed African immigrant dead after a serpentine chase inside a massive Manhattan warehouse, was convicted by a judge Friday of criminally negligent homicide.

Conroy, 27, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion when state Supreme Court Justice Robert Straus announced the verdict in the slaying of Ousmane Zongo, 43. He faces up to four years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 2.

Straus, who heard the 10-day retrial without a jury, also has the option of sentencing Conroy to probation. He acquitted Conroy of the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter. That charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Straus convicted Conroy for fatally shooting Zongo on May 23, 2003, inside a West 27th Street storage warehouse during a police raid in which two suspected counterfeiters of CDs and DVDs were arrested. Zongo was not connected to that case.

Conroy contended that Zongo, a native of Burkina Faso in West Africa and a repairer of African art objects and musical instruments, tried to disarm him, and he shot Zongo four times -- two wounds were in the back -- in self defense.

Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti said the officer, on the job since September 2000, had "recklessly engaged in conduct that led to the death of Mr. Zongo ... (conduct) that was not justified" by the situation.

Durastanti said Conroy, wearing a postal uniform as a disguise during the raid, "inexplicably chose to challenge Mr. Zongo, not by showing him his badge but by pulling out his 9-millimeter pistol and pointing it at Mr. Zongo."

The case prompted comparisons with the infamous shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant shot to death at the front door of his Bronx apartment building on Feb. 4, 1999, by four officers who said he fit the description of a rape suspect and they mistook his wallet for a gun.

The officers, who fired 41 shots at Diallo, were acquitted of state criminal charges in a February 2000 trial.

Conroy's first trial ended in March with the jury deadlocked 10-2 for conviction. The jury vote was widely reported and the defense tried to move the retrial upstate, an attempt that was rejected by an appeals court.

Conroy's lawyer, Stuart London, said he will appeal Straus' verdict. In the meantime, he said he will ask the judge to sentence Conroy to probation.

The courtroom was packed to hear the verdict and included numerous police officers in street clothes. Also present was Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the police union.

"We're obviously very disappointed," Lynch said later. "This was a police officer in a terrible situation doing what police officers do -- dealing with the unexpected."

He predicted the verdict will have "a chilling effect" on all police officers.

"The benefit of the doubt should always go to the police officer," Lynch said.

Zongo's wife, Salimata Sanfo, speaking through an interpreter outside the courthouse, said: "I am very happy. ... When I go back to Africa, I will tell everybody that justice can be had in the United States."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered his condolences to the dead man's family in a statement issued after the verdict.

"The death of Ousmane Zongo was as tragedy felt throughout our city, and today our criminal justice system has spoken," Bloomberg said.

The Zongo family has filed a federal wrongful death civil suit. Family attorney Sanford Rubenstein said Conroy's liability was determined by Straus's verdict and the only issue at the civil trial will be monetary damages.

Zongo family attorney Michael Hardy said the verdict "shows we continue to make progress in white-on-black crime. There was a time when this verdict would have been an impossibility."