Sean Carroll told jurors he thought Amadou Diallo had a gun when he fired on him. (Court TV)

				DIALLO SHOOTING TRIAL
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ALBANY, N.Y. (Court TV) — The officer who arguably set off the gunfire that killed Amadou Diallo told jurors that he fired because he believed the victim had a gun in his hand and was about to fire on him and his partner.

"As the individual pulled at the object in his right pocket, my prior experience, my training, told me he was pulling out a gun," Officer Sean Carroll tearfully testified. "At that point, I alerted my partner [Edward McMellon]: 'Gun! He's got a gun!' ... Believing that he [Diallo] was about to fire his weapon on my partner, I fired my weapon."

But Diallo did not have a weapon. He was unarmed, having only a beeper, a wallet and his keys. But that night last February, Carroll and his partners — McMellon, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy — did not realize that the victim was unarmed until after they had fired 41 bullets. [Nineteen struck and killed the West African immigrant.] The four officers are on trial for second-degree murder in Diallo's shooting death.

But the officers have claimed that Diallo's shooting was a reasonable mistake, not a murder. The defense has suggested that the officers first suspected Diallo when he allegedly 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, because of the darkness, clearly tell whether he was going for a weapon, and they felt threatened.

Carroll took jurors back to the night of Feb. 4, 1999 when he took the stand Monday. According to Carroll, he and his partners in New York's Street Crime Unit were driving in an unmarked car in search of a serial Bronx rapist when they encountered Diallo. The rapist, Carroll said, was described as a black or Hispanic male, between 5 foot 5 and 5 foot 8, and weighing between 130 and 160 pounds. The suspect also was known to carry two weapons, a small black automatic handgun and a small silver one.

According to Carroll, Diallo was standing in the entrance way to his apartment building and appeared to be looking up and down the block on Wheeler Avenue at the time of the encounter. [Carroll did not know Diallo before the shooting and did not know he lived in the building.] Diallo, Carroll said, was looking at their car and would duck his head in and out of the vestibule, as if he didn't want to be seen. This, Carroll said, made him suspicious of Diallo.

"I'm trying to figure out, 'What's going on here? What's this guy up to?'" Carroll said. "He kept slinking back into the area, as if he didn't want to be seen. He definitely matched the description of the rapist; there was no doubt in my mind about that."

When Diallo kept looking at them and continued looking up and down the block and backing into the vestibule, Carroll and McMellon decided to approach him. Murphy and Boss followed as backup. Carroll testified that he suspected that Diallo may have been the look-out for a potential robbery in the building.

According to Carroll, McMellon then took out his shield and asked Diallo if they could have a word with him. Carroll said Diallo backed slowly into the vestibule while reaching for an object in his right pocket. McMellon then allegedly identified himself again and asked Diallo to stop. Carroll said he also asked Diallo to halt. Diallo apparently ignored the repeated requests, Carroll claimed. Diallo was digging for something in his right pocket while turning and reaching for the doorknob with his left hand, Carroll testified.

To Carroll, Diallo's movement reminded him of a prior arrest he made where he had to take a gun away from a suspect. Diallo, Carroll told jurors, never spoke once and never told the officers that he lived in the building. Diallo refused to heed repeated police commands by him and McMellon to "stop, show me your hands," according to Carroll.

"We said it clearly," Carroll said. "He just didn't want to listen."

Then, Carroll said, as Diallo began pulling the object out of his right pocket, he thought the West African immigrant was about to shoot McMellon. To save his partner, Carroll said he fired his weapon. He remembered seeing McMellon fly past him and thought that he had been hit by Diallo. Then, Carroll recalled, the gunfire became very loud, "like a cannon shot," and he thought he saw the muzzle of the object in Diallo's hand flashing.

Because Diallo remained standing during much of the barrage, Carroll said he thought Diallo was wearing a bulletproof vest. Carroll recalled hearing wood splintering. Carroll said he thought Diallo had shot his partner and that the suspect was determined not to go to jail. Carroll said he aimed at Diallo's legs in an attempt to stop him.

Amadou Diallo refused to heed commands to "stop, show me your hands," Sean Carroll told jurors. "We said it clearly," Carroll said. "He just didn't want to listen." (AP Photo)

When Carroll's gun's 16 rounds were emptied, he said he reloaded and slowly approached Diallo, who was now floored, with his head propped up against the entrance way. 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.

Carroll then searched the vestibule briefly for a gun, but found nothing. "I kept thinking, 'I saw a muzzle flash. I saw a muzzle flash,'" Carroll told the jury. 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.

At one point under direct examination, Carroll became tearful when he told jurors about his history with the Street Crime Unit, particularly his friendship with slain officer Kevin Gillepsie. Gillepsie, a member of the Street Crime Unit, was killed by a suspect in 1996. [At that time, Gillepsie was the first officer killed in the line of duty since New York State reinstated the death penalty. His death created controversy when Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson chose not to seek the death penalty. New York Governor George Pataki intervened and assigned the case to the state attorney general. The suspect, however, never went to trial because he committed suicide in jail.]

During cross-examination, Carroll said he feared that an armed Diallo would go into the building and create a potential hostage situation. That's why, he explained, they approached Diallo right away. When shown another sketch of the rape suspect, however, Carroll conceded that Diallo bore very little resemblance to the sketch. Carroll's cross-examination continues Monday afternoon.

Before Carroll's testimony, the defense cross-examined their own previous witness over inconsistencies in her various statements about the shooting to investigators and a TV new station. Last week, defense lawyers had hoped Schrrie Elliott would corroborate the defense's claims that one of the officers cried, "Gun!" before the shooting started. They had no way of knowing for sure what Elliott was going to say; she had refused prior interview requests by the officers' lawyers. Still, she had reportedly told a Bronx grand jury that she heard one of the officers cry "Gun!" before the gunfire erupted.

However, when Elliott took the stand last week, she said she heard someone — possibly an officer or Diallo, — yell "Gun!" She claimed she didn't know for sure who said it. Elliott also told jurors that the officers had their guns drawn before they surrounded the victim. When asked if the officers continued firing at Diallo after he had fallen, Elliot tearfully replied, "Yes."

Still, in interviews with WNBC News, Elliott says Diallo remains standing for much of the shooting. An officer cries, "Gun!" she tells the reporter. On Monday, defense attorney Stephen Worth confronted Elliott, who was declared a hostile witness, with her inconsistent statements, and she confirmed she had granted the interview with WNBC. She acknowledged making the statements willingly.

Elliott also acknowledged that Diallo had his back to the officers for a time and had his left side to the officers during the encounter. Diallo's right hand, she agreed, was always in his pocket.

— Bryan Robinson