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SLAIN GUINEAN IMMIGRANT LIED ON ASYLUM APPLICATION
According to one of his family’s lawyers, Amadou Diallo, the Guinean immigrant who was shot and killed by New York City police officers, was granted asylum under false pretenses. The attorney, Kyle B. Watters, said Diallo had claimed to be from Mauritania, and said that both of his parents had been killed in wars there.
Diallo was from a relatively well off Guinean family and was in the U.S. on a three-year visa that was to expire in April of 1999. According to Watters, there was no evidence Diallo had tried to apply for asylum as a Guinean.
As Watters noted, this information should have no impact on the investigation into Diallo’s shooting. The officers had no way of knowing his immigration status, and because Diallo’s visa was current, there was no reason for him to be fearful of the police. Furthermore, even if he was illegally in the U.S., that is not justification for the actions of the police. However, there are reports that attorneys for two of the officers say that since he could have been reaching for his immigration papers and did not ‘freeze’ as ordered the officers actions were justified.
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is investigating the incident, and Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) says there will be a Justice Department investigation into the relationship between minorities in New York City and the police there.