NEW YORK – Kenneth Boss, the only officer involved in the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo still in the NYPD, is getting promoted to sergeant Thursday.
The 44-year-old Boss has been with the New York City Police Department for 21 years and is currently with the NYPD Aviation Unit.
The four officers involved in the Diallo shooting were acquitted of murder and other charges, but only Boss remained with the force. Two of the officers joined the city fire department and the other retired.
National Action Network leader the Rev. Al Sharpton called the promotion “disgraceful.”
“It sends the wrong signal at a time when nationwide we are raising the question of police reform,” Diallo’s mother Katiadou told PIX11. “They know what happened to my son was wrong.”
Diallo was killed when the four officers, with the Street Crime Unit, fired 41 shots as Diallo reached for his wallet.
Retired NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher says the promotion was not just handed to Boss.
“He was modified for years, his record reviewed extensively and he took the civil service exam and passed.”
Still Katiadou will continue her movement for justice – she plans on joining community leaders and other mothers who have lost their sons in February to call for police change.
