In the Bronx, on March 1, 2000, a 23-year-old Black man named Malcolm Ferguson was fatally shot by an undercover police officer. This incident occurred just a few blocks from where Amadou Diallo had been killed by police a year prior, adding to the tension between the community and law enforcement. Just five days before his own death, Ferguson had been arrested for protesting the acquittal of the officers involved in the Diallo case.
There are conflicting accounts of the moments that led
to Ferguson's death. The police officer involved, Louis Rivera, stated that Ferguson was a drug suspect who engaged in a struggle with him inside an apartment building at 1045 Boynton Avenue. Rivera claimed his gun discharged accidentally during this struggle, striking Ferguson in the head. According to the police, Ferguson had been in possession of heroin and was fleeing from officers.
However, witnesses and Ferguson's family tell a different story. They maintain that Ferguson was unarmed and was shot in the street, not inside a building. His family believes he was being harassed by the police due to a lawsuit he had filed against the NYPD for a prior violent arrest. No drugs were found on his person, according to some accounts. The medical examiner's testimony in a later civil trial suggested the gun was at point-blank range, with the barrel touching Ferguson's temple when it was fired.
Following Malcolm Ferguson's death, his mother, Juanita Young, became a vocal activist against police brutality. She filed a civil lawsuit against the city and the NYPD. In 2007, a Bronx jury found Officer Louis Rivera '100 percent responsible' for Ferguson's wrongful death and awarded his mother over $10 million. This amount was later reduced to nearly $3 million following an appeal by the city. Despite the outcome of the civil trial, no criminal charges were ever filed against Officer Rivera. The Bronx District Attorney's office concluded that the shooting was accidental.
