Diallo's Mother Seeks Justice

Over seven hundred people gathered in Riverside Church on Friday night to attend a screening of Death of Two Sons, a documentary that tells the intertwining stories of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old victim of a police shooting in New York, and Jesse Thyne, an American Peace Corps volunteer who died working in Diallo's home country of Guinea.

The screening was held in part to respond to recent incidents of alleged police brutality in New York City such as the November 2006 police shooting which left an unarmed man, Sean Bell, dead. Bell's and Diallo's mothers were both present at the screening.

Calling the film screening a "celebration," Katiadou Diallo, Amadou Diallo's mother, said in a speech, "When Amadou died, I thought the world was ending ... But then Muslims, and Christians, and Jews prayed for us, and welcomed us to this wonderful city ... I was able to rise up and heal."

Amadou Diallo was killed by 41 shots fired by four white New York Police Department officers in 1999. Thyne, who had been assigned to Diallo's village in Guinea and was "adopted" by the Diallo family after their son left for the United States, died in a car accident in Guinea less than a year after Diallo's death. Although the two men never met, the family considered Thyne, who was only two months older than Diallo, another son.

The film highlighted how the justice systems in both countries worked differently in response to the deaths of the young men.

The policemen who shot Diallo were acquitted of all charges in 2000, while the Guinean taxi driver who crashed into Thyne's car was sentenced to three years in prison, an unusually harsh sentence in Guinea.

Katiadou Diallo said that while Thyne received justice in Guinea, her son never received justice in America.

While the officers who shot Diallo were acquitted, his family received a $3 million settlement from a lawsuit against the City.

Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins told the crowd he hoped the film "will help clear the vision of those who view the world through a cloud of racism," and that it will inspire young people to "pursue the dream that was stolen from him [Diallo]."

Following her son's death, Katiadou Diallo created the Amadou Diallo Foundation, a humanitarian fund that aims to reduce racial conflict and improve police-community relations.

While Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel were expected to be in attendance, neither made an appearance at the screening. Rangel's wife, Alma Rangel, attended, in addition to Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion.