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Vol. 81/No. 43      November 20, 2017

 
 

‘I’m not backing off of fight against cop brutality’

Militant

NEW YORK — “It’s been five years and I’m not going to back off,” Hawa Bah told the Militant Nov. 1. “I’m fighting for the truth about what happened to my son.” She had just gone through the first day of the trial over the killing of her son, Mohamed, by New York City police officers. The Bah family filed the civil suit against the city and the officers involved in Mohamed Bah’s death.

Hawa Bah is in the center of the photo, taken outside the federal court. With her in the front row from left are Iris Baez, whose son Anthony was killed by New York cops in 1994; Kadiatou Diallo, whose son Amadou was shot 41 times in 1999; Gwen Garr, whose son Eric Garner was strangled to death by the cops; and Adama Bah, Mohamed’s cousin.

On Sept. 25, 2012, Hawa Bah dialed 911 to ask for an ambulance for her son, a student and taxi driver, who was suffering a mental breakdown. Instead, nine heavily armed cops arrived. Refusing to allow her back into the apartment to speak with her son, the police shot and killed him, claiming he threatened them with a knife. The knife and other evidence were never tested for fingerprints and are now “contaminated” or “lost,” police officials say.

A Manhattan grand jury and federal prosecutors refused to indict any of
the cops.

— SHEILA LAWRENCE

 
 
 
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