On April 14, 1972, 32-year-old police officer Philip Cardillo and his partner responded to a false distress call at 102 West 116th Street, the Nation of Islam Mosque No. 7 in Manhattan. According to reports, Cardillo and his partner were met with hostility inside the mosque; a group of 15 to 20 congregants allegedly attacked officers. During the melee Cardillo was separated from his partner, assaulted, disarmed, and shot at point-blank range. He died of his wounds at St. Luke’s Hospital on April 20, 1972.

The investigation was immediately mired in controversy. High-ranking officials ordered police to withdraw from the mosque, detained suspects were reportedly released without proper identification, and prosecutors struggled to secure a conviction. Louis 17X Dupree was the only person ever charged; an eyewitness at the mosque identified him, but the first trial ended in a hung jury and the second in an acquittal. The case remained officially unsolved and was reopened in 2006 to examine a possible conspiracy, but that later probe did not produce convictions.

Are there details about the April 14 scene or about people present that readers can add to help clarify what happened?