On October 29, 1984, 66-year-old Eleanor Bumpers, an African American woman who was physically disabled and had a history of mental health problems, was shot and killed in her Bronx public housing apartment during a city-ordered eviction. Housing authority workers said she had resisted eviction and allegedly threatened them with a knife and boiling lye. NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers drilled out her door, saw her naked and holding a 10-inch kitchen knife, and broke the door down. When officers moved to restrain her with plastic shields and a restraining bar, Officer Stephen Sullivan fired a 12-gauge shotgun twice; the first pellet struck her hand and the second hit her chest, causing her death.

The shooting prompted citywide protests and raised questions about police conduct, race, and treatment of the mentally ill. Officer Sullivan was indicted on second-degree manslaughter charges in January 1985; the indictment was dismissed, later reinstated on appeal, and Sullivan was acquitted at a bench trial on February 26, 1987. Federal prosecutors declined to bring civil rights charges.

The Bumpers family later settled a civil suit against the city for $200,000, and two social services supervisors were demoted for their handling of her case before the eviction.