Diallo Family Asks Why Officer Gets Gun Back

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly speaks after a promotions ceremony.

More than 13 years after Amadou Diallo was shot in the vestibule of his Bronx building, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has agreed to give a service weapon back to one of the four NYPD officers involved.

It’s a decision that angered Diallo’s mother Kdiatou Diallo, who said she was under the impression that Officer Kenneth Boss would not be given back a weapon.

“Now [Kelly] has turned around and given back the gun,” she told The New York Times. “We want to know why. Why did he change his mind?”

Boss was later exonerated in court.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that Kelly agreed to allow Boss, 41, to have the department’s standard 9mm weapon, although no reason was given for why.

Police fired 41 bullets at Diallo, hitting him 19 times, in February 1999. They believed he was armed, but no weapon was found. Diallo was pulling out his wallet.

PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement that the decision was long overdue.

“This police officer was exonerated in a criminal trail and in a thorough departmental review and there was no reason to deny him full restoration,” he said. “The return of his weapon is appropriate and long overdue.”