On February 4, 1999, 23-year-old Amadou Diallo, a street vendor and immigrant from Guinea, was standing on the stoop of his Bronx apartment building when four plainclothes NYPD Street Crime Unit officers approached while searching for a serial rapist. The officers—Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon, Kenneth Boss, and Richard Murphy—later said they ordered Diallo to show his hands and that one officer believed he saw a gun when Diallo reached toward his pocket. The officers fired 41 shots, striking Diallo 19 times; the object Diallo had reached for was his wallet and he was unarmed and had no criminal record.

The four officers were arrested and charged with second-degree murder and reckless endangerment. The trial was moved from the Bronx to Albany; in February 2000 a jury acquitted all four officers of all charges. The Diallo family later settled a wrongful death suit against the city and the officers for $3 million. The shooting prompted the disbandment of the Street Crime Unit and a review of police training policies; Kenneth Boss had previously been involved in a fatal shooting and remained with the NYPD, later promoted to sergeant.

Did anyone in the Bronx community at the time have information about the events on that stoop that night?