Ousmane Zongo, a 43-year-old male immigrant from Burkina Faso, was a quiet and gentle man who worked diligently in New York City repairing art and musical instruments. He tirelessly sent money home to his wife and two young children in the West African nation he hailed from. On May 22, 2003, his life was tragically cut short inside a Manhattan storage facility where he rented a small studio.
That day, the New York City Police Department was conducting a raid on the warehouse, targeting a CD and DVD counterfeiting operation with which Zongo had no involvement.
During the raid, Zongo encountered an undercover NYPD officer, Bryan Conroy, who was disguised as a postal worker while guarding a bin of counterfeit CDs. The details of their initial interaction remain known only through Conroy's testimony, as there were no other witnesses or surveillance footage. Conroy claimed that after he drew his weapon, Zongo lunged for it, instigating a chase through the narrow corridors of the warehouse. Prosecutors contended that Zongo, who had no criminal record, likely ran out of fear and confusion when the plainclothes officer pulled out his gun. The pursuit ended when Zongo found himself trapped in a dead-end hallway. It was there that Officer Conroy fired his weapon five times, striking Zongo four times, including once in the back. The unarmed artisan died from his injuries a few hours later at a local hospital.
The shooting of Ousmane Zongo drew immediate condemnation and parallels to other controversial police killings of unarmed African immigrants in the city. Civil rights activists, led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, organized protests against what they viewed as another instance of police brutality and racial profiling. In the wake of the shooting, Officer Bryan Conroy was indicted and stood trial for second-degree manslaughter. The first trial, held in March 2005, concluded with a hung jury that had been leaning heavily towards conviction.
A second trial was held in October of the same year, this time with a judge deciding the verdict instead of a jury. Justice Robert H. Straus found Officer Conroy not guilty of the more serious manslaughter charge but convicted him of criminally negligent homicide. For this conviction, Bryan Conroy was sentenced to five years of probation and 500 hours of community service; he did not receive any jail time but his career as a police officer came to an end as a result of the felony conviction. A year after the criminal proceedings, Ousmane Zongo's family settled a civil rights lawsuit filed against the city of New York for $3 million. His widow expressed disappointment that Conroy avoided prison but stated that the conviction itself was important because it officially cleared her husband's name and held the officer criminally accountable for his death.
