Kadiatou Diallo of Guinea, speaking at Colby on the death of her son, Amadou Diallo, who was shot by New York police.

"On February 3, 1999, Amadou left his job to go on the subway and arrived in the Bronx. A little before midnight he went into the apartment. He talked with one of his roommates about paying a utility bill. He then went outside, stood in the entrance of his building. He was relaxing after work and had had a hard day. He was doing nothing wrong. He was not armed. He had only a wallet, keys and a beeper. He had taken no alcohol of any kind and had taken no drugs. There had been no complaint by any person that anyone was acting suspiciously on the avenue that night.

"The officers were all six feet tall, all close to 200 pounds. All white and dressed in civilian clothes. Each was armed with a semi-automatic nine millimeter pistol loaded with 16 bullets. Each wore a bullet [proof] vest. Amadou was five feet six inches tall and weighed a hundred and fifty pounds. He had never been in a fight before. Witnesses testified that the officers never identified themselves as they approached my son. Seeing four large men quickly approaching him, I can only imagine the fear and terror he must have felt. I believe he thought he was going to be robbed or even beaten and killed. He retreated into the vestibule. The vestibule was five feet by seven feet, the size of a small elevator. He was trapped. He had nowhere to go. He had nowhere to hide. The officers claim they thought my son's wallet, which he was desperately trying to hand them, was a gun. They opened fire, shooting 41 times and hitting my son with 19 bullets. In truth, the only reason these officers approached my son and shot him, I later understood, was that he was a black man. There can be no other reason since he was doing nothing wrong. His only crime was to believe he could stand safely in front of his own home."