When I said that I thought the circumstances indicated that the cops had, given the horrifyingly tragic way the situation unfolded, followed police guidelines, I didn't reiterate that the jury, a third of which was black, thought as I do.
I would be interested to hear a suggested phrasing for protocols on how police officers should react in situations such as the one they perceived they were in.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the testimony of one of the officers. I put them here out of sympathy, because I (and the jury) think these men have not been shown to be murderers, or racists, or trigger-happy, and have suffered horribly, and that it is an ongoing injustice.
One of them recently took the examination to become a fireman. He scored very high, in the top, well, I forget, but about 5%. But there were protests that a "murderer" shouldn't be allowed the privilege of entering burning buildings, and the last I heard, his acceptance had been put on hold.
Account of Carroll's testimony:
When Carroll's gun's 16 rounds were emptied, he said he reloaded and slowly approached Diallo, who was now floored... Since Diallo still held the object in his right hand, Carroll said he still perceived him as a danger. Behind him, the officer heard his partners ask McMellon, "Where are you hit? Where are you hit?" [McMellon suffered no gun wounds.]
Carroll said he slowly removed the object from Diallo's hand and noticed it was soft. It was a wallet. He then opened the wallet to see if it was a "wallet gun" he had learned about from police training films. But it wasn't; it was a plain ordinary wallet. Then the truth began to dawn on Carroll.
"I believe I said, 'Where's the f---n' gun? Where's the f---n' gun?'" Carroll weeped.
...The officer then noticed that Diallo was still moving a bit and still breathing.
"I figured I would try to perform CPR on the individual," Carroll said. "But then I saw the bullet wounds in his chest and thought, 'Oh God, I might make it worse if I press on his chest.' I held his hand and said, 'Don't die, keep breathing, don't die.'
But Carroll said, there came a point when Diallo stopped moving and stopped breathing.... |
