Ousmane Zongo was a 43-year-old immigrant from Burkina Faso who repaired art and musical instruments in New York City and supported a wife and two young children back home. On May 22, 2003, Zongo was inside a Manhattan storage facility where he rented a small studio when NYPD officers raided the warehouse targeting a CD and DVD counterfeiting operation with which he had no involvement.

During the raid, undercover Officer Bryan Conroy, disguised as a postal worker, encountered Zongo. Conroy testified that Zongo lunged for his weapon and fled; prosecutors argued Zongo likely ran out of fear and confusion. Conroy chased Zongo into a dead-end hallway and fired five times, hitting him four times, including once in the back. Zongo, unarmed, died a few hours later at a hospital.

Conroy was indicted and tried for second-degree manslaughter; the first jury deadlocked in March 2005. In an October 2005 bench trial, Judge Robert H. Straus acquitted Conroy of manslaughter but convicted him of criminally negligent homicide. Conroy received five years probation and 500 hours of community service and lost his job as an officer. A year after the criminal case, Zongo’s family settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city for $3 million; his widow said the conviction mattered because it cleared his name and held the officer criminally accountable for his death.

If anyone knew Zongo, his studio, or was at the warehouse that day, can you share what you remember?