Killing of African immigrant in 1999 in Bronx spurred protests, vigils
Outside the Wakefield home of Ramarley Graham, family and friends silently tend to the growing memorial to the unarmed teen shot dead by police last week.
More than 100 candles and bouquets of flowers filled the sidewalk Monday. Posters reading “I love you Ramarley,” and a handful of photographs of the 18-year old hang from the gate.
There are other posters too, ones that read “Stop Police Brutality” and “Stop Killing Our Youths,” that echo a community’s calls for justice reminiscent of the Amadou Diallo shooting in the Bronx 13 years ago.
“Anytime you end up having an unarmed person, particularly someone of color, who gets shot and killed by police, it brings back all of the old stories,” said State Assemblyman Carl Heastie.
Diallo died in a hail of police bullets at his Soundview home on Feb. 4, 1999. After mistaking Diallo’s wallet for a gun, four officers fired 41 times, hitting the 23-year old Guinean immigrant 19 times.
Graham was shot in the bathroom of his house on E. 229th St., last Thursday after cops had chased him in mistaken belief he had a gun.
In both cases the cops were white.
The two shootings are eerily similar, said Borough President Rubén Díaz, Jr. Back in 1999, he was among hundreds of people arrested outside Police Headquarters while protesting the Diallo shooting. At the time, Diaz was a state assemblyman.
“What you get in instances like this,” he said, “is a certain segment of the population who feel like this could happen to anyone of them, who feel they can identify with the family.”
In the days following the shooting, there have been several rallies, a town hall meeting and candlelight vigils.
But while protestors in the Diallo case were labeled “rabble rousers,” Díaz said, the response to Graham’s shooting has been markedly different.
“The difference is that here the police officers involved have been taken off the streets, there’s an immediate internal affairs investigation subsequent to Mr. Graham’s death, and we have an immediate meeting with police, elected officials, community leaders and family members,” he said.
“People are very upset and rightfully so. What we need here is a full investigation and for the family to feel like they’re being treated with respect and getting justice.”
Bronx Community Board 12 Chairman Rev. Richard Gorman echoed the borough president’s call for a swift investigation.
“I think a lot of the anger and concern in the community has to do with the fact that we don’t have all the facts yet,” he said.
Gorman added that the shooting also brings to the forefront the community’s ongoing policing problems.
Drug sales have been long been a problem along the White Plains Road commercial strip and for the last 15 years Gorman has been calling for more police patrols.
“This (shooting) only highlights the traditional problem we’ve had in terms of police and the lack of adequately trained police personnel to deal with the problem,” he said.
“Maybe they should listen a little more to the people and things like this wouldn’t happen
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