Feds Say They Won't Prosecute Cops Who Killed Harlem Man In 2012

Federal prosecutors said they won't prosecute officers involved in the 2012 fatal shooting of an immigrant from Guinea. The decision ends his family's five year struggle to hold police criminally accountable.

Police shot Mohamed Bah, a student and taxi driver, after his mother called 911 for help when her son was experiencing a mental breakdown.

Relatives and community activists have held vigils and rallies for years to pressure prosecutors. On Tuesday, they gathered in front of the Lower Manhattan offices of US Attorney Joon Kim and waited for Hawa Bah, Mohamed's mother, to return from her meeting with federal prosecutors. They held up signs that called for justice, prayed and sang, "We will not forget you Mohamed Bah."

After the meeting with prosecutors, Bah looked distraught and upset.

"I want everyone to imagine what happened to me today. I lost my baby because he got sick and I call an ambulance," she said. "It's not fair. Mohamed never committed a crime."

After Bah called for an ambulance, the police were the first to respond. The NYPD has said officers shot and killed Mohamed after he threatened them with a knife. The family disputes that version of events. The only eyewitnesses were the police. Prosecutors said they considered evidence that included interviews with NYPD officers, vests worn by officers that had slash marks, and an autopsy report. In the end, they concluded it wasn't enough to prove officers acted deliberately and with intent.

"Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence, nor bad judgement is sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation," the US Attorney's Office wrote in a statement. 

Bah's attorney, Debra Cohen, said that she hoped a pending civil case would provide the family with some sense of justice.

"We will hope in the trial that the truth will come out," Cohen said. "And hopefully some long-lasting legacy for Mohamed Bah, which is a change in this system which is killing vulnerable innocent people in their homes."

The civil trial is expected to begin this November.