Defense attorney Stephen Worth will soon confront hostile defense witness Schrrie Elliott over inconsistencies in her various statements about Amadou Diallo's shooting. (Court TV)

				DIALLO SHOOTING TRIAL
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ALBANY, N.Y. (Court TV) — The judge presiding over the Amadou Diallo murder trial ruled Thursday morning that the officers' lawyers can challenge a hostile eyewitness' testimony about the shooting with tapes of interviews she gave to a TV news station.

Lawyers for officers Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss had hoped Wednesday that Schrrie Elliott would corroborate the defense's claims that one of the officers cried, "Gun!" before the shooting started. The lawyers had hoped she would support the officers' contention that they reasonably feared for their lives when they fired on Diallo 41 times.

But things did not quite work out that way when Elliott took the stand. A reluctant defense witness, who refused all defense requests for an interview before Wednesday, told jurors that the officers had their guns drawn before they approached the victim and continued firing at him after he had fallen. She did not fully support defense's argument that one of the officers — presumably Carroll — cried "Gun!" before the shooting. Instead, she agreed that either Diallo or one of the officers could have made the outburst. Visibly agitating — and perhaps stunning — the rest of the defense, Elliott also did not agree that Diallo, as the defense claims, was standing during much of the shooting. She told jurors that Diallo fell almost immediately after being shot.

Since Elliott had refused all defense interview requests, the officers' lawyers did not know what to expect from her testimony. [However, she had met a few times with prosecutors.]

Attorney Stephen Worth, who represents Officer McMellon, confronted Elliott over the interview she gave to WNBC, where she allegedly claimed that she could not believe how long Diallo remained standing during the shooting. Elliott, however, denied making the statement.

Worth tried to impeach his own witness and unsuccessfully attempted get the videotape of the interview admitted as evidence Wednesday. On Thursday, outside the presence of the jury, the defense brought Elliott back to the stand and played portions of various interviews she gave to WNBC reporter Scott Weinberger. In one interview, Elliott says she heard one of the officers yell "Gun!"

"What did you hear the officer say before the shooting?" Weinberger asks.

"Gun!" Elliott replies. "That's it ..."

In another interview, given last Tuesday, Elliott suggests that Diallo was standing during much of the shooting, not lying down as she testified.

"Was there gunfire more when he [Diallo] was standing up or laying down?" Weinberger asks.

"When he was standing up," Elliott says.

Once satisfied that the TV interview was authenticated, Justice Joseph Teresi ruled that it could be admitted as evidence. (Court TV)

After the tapes were played, prosecutor Don Levin cross-examined Elliott and asked her whether she actually knew who said "gun" or whether Weinberger suggested in his question that it was an officer. Elliott said she did not see anyone say the word and conceded that the officers' backs were to her during the incident. [This contradicts a portion of another interview, given just weeks after the shooting, where she claimed she saw an officer say out of his own mouth, "he's got a gun."] She maintained, however, that Diallo was on the ground while shots were fired.

Still, under re-direct by defense attorney Worth, Elliott conceded that no one coerced her into making her statements.

Satisfied that the tapes had been authenticated and that Elliott had remembered conducting the interviews with WNBC, Justice Joseph Teresi ruled that the defense could use the tapes as evidence. Justice Teresi, however, ruled that Schrrie Elliott would not take the stand again until next Monday. He does not want jurors to see portions of the interview that include shots of the shooting scene and WNBC correspondent Scott Weinberger's reports. It will take until Monday for the tapes to be prepared for the jury.

Lawyers for officers Carroll, Murphy, McMellon and Boss are trying to prove that Diallo's shooting death last February was a tragic accident, not murder. The four members of New York's Street Crime Unit were working undercover and driving in an unmarked car when they encountered Diallo.

The officers' defense claims that Diallo was acting suspiciously and ducked his head back into the vestibule when he saw them. The officers claim they identified themselves and that Diallo did not heed their command to halt. When he reached for something, the defense says, officers could not clearly tell whether he was going for a weapon, and they felt threatened. Diallo was then fired upon; 19 of the 41 bullets fired hit the West African immigrant. He was unarmed, having only a beeper, a wallet and his keys when he was killed.

— Bryan Robinson