Monday, February 05, 2001

Emotions Soar at Vigil on 2nd Anniversary of Diallo Killing This time the crowds did not swell as they did in 1999 in the months after Mr. Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant on his way home from work, was gunned down. Nor did the event have the elevated drama of the first anniversary, last Feb. 4, when Mr. Diallo's parents traveled from Albany during the criminal trial of the four officers. But a two-hour vigil yesterday did not pass without raw emotion and some contentious moments, including remarks by the city's comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, being drowned out by boos. "My life has not been the same," Amadou Diallo's father, Saikou Diallo, told the more than 400 people who congregated outside his son's building, at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in Soundview. Since Amadou's death, he continued, he has "spent every minute of my life searching for justice." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/05/nyregion/05DIAL.html?pagewanted=all