Governor Pataki of New York has been urged by the African community to appoint an independent investigator to investigate the case of the shooting of an unarmed African immigrant by a New York police officer.

The call was made today at a joint meeting between members of the United African Congress, Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, and the office of Sen. David Paterson, Senate Minority Leader in the New York State Senate.

Echoing the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Hon. Sen. David Paterson said, "The district attorney cannot investigate the situation. The investigation should be seen as scrupulous and fair. The District Attorney's office should recuse itself. We are calling on the Governor to appoint an Independent Investigator to handle the case of Ousmane Zongo. That's the only way the truth is going to come out."

Both Sen. Paterson and the Rev. Al Sharpton noted that the district attorney's office obtained the search warrant, and as such it could not now turn around to investigate itself. Though the District Attorney, Mr. Robert Morganthau, had said that he had a reputation for fairness, they noted that he could not possibly work against himself.

The Rev. Al Sharpton reminded the gathering that the Amadou Diallo case was lost because the investigation was conducted by a district attorney, while that of Abner Louima was conducted by a special investigator.

Rev. Al Sharpton dwelt at length on the method employed by the police during the search. "This is a case o a search warrant for counterfeited CDs, and these officers had their guns drawn. According to eye-witnesses on the ground-floor, when these officers arrived they did not have their shields showing, but were tucked in under their clothes and did not identify themselves as police officers. And the officer who shot Ousmane Zongo was wearing a postal uniform."

Ousmane Zongo was shot five times on Thursday, May 22, by a New York City plainclothes Officer Bryan Conroy, who was part of a group of plainclothes officers who had gone to the 615 West 27th Building to execute a search warrant for DVD and CD counterfeiting.

The officers went to the sixth floor of the building, where they arrested Ismaila Sow, 33, in room 13610 where thousands of counterfeited CDS and DVDs were found. The officers confiscated the evidence and took them downstairs, but left others to continue the search for more contrabands.

On the third floor, the police said they stationed a plainclothes officer, Bryan Conroy, to guard the sprawling floor.

It was there, Officer Conroy told his supervisor after the shooting, that Ousmane approached him and that a scuffle ensued, after which he started chasing Ousmane.

Officer Conroy allegedly spoke through the walkie-talkie that he was in pursuit of Ousmane, who had dropped his cell phone and a ring, before reaching a dead-ended area of the floor.

The officer shot him five times. According to the medical examiner, Zongo suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen, chest and upper back and was grazed on the right arm. The bullets perforated Zongo's lung, liver, kidney, spleen and stomach. Speaking for the United African Congress, its President and National Spokesperson, Mr. Sidique Wai, posed a host of unanswered questions. Said Mr. Wai, "If these officers were coming to arrest CD counterfeiters, why were they so heavily armed? None of the Africans interviewed believed the counterfeiters carried guns."

Continued Mr. Wai, "When the officers first arrived at the building, why didn't they contact the warehouse manager or the Chief of Security for the warehouse to find out exactly what they were dealing with? If they had talked to any of the senior African art dealers on the ground floor, they would have known that these Africans wanted management to evict the counterfeiters."

Asked Mr. Wai, "Did Officer Conroy or any of the other cops involved in the raid attend the multi-cultural curriculum created by the United African Congress for the Police Academy in 1999? If not, why not?"

Though the allegation that two FBI agents arrived at the scene has not been verified, it was noted that they wore their shields. "According to all of the witness we have talked to," said Mr. Wai, "when the plain clothes officers

first entered the warehouse, they had their shields tucked under their shirts and did not identify themselves as police officers."

These are questions for which the African community seeks immediate answers.

Meanwhile, the community is again left with burying another innocent and unarmed man, whose only crime was coming to America to better his life. Unfortunately, as it happens to millions of undocumented aliens, there is no insurance to speak of, and his community will have to raise the money to bury him as well as fly his body back home to Burkina Faso.

In 1999, it was Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times, because the four police officers who murdered him thought he was carrying a gun, when in fact he was

carrying his wallet. A message was sent by the acquittal of these four police

officers.

Now that message is echoing from America to Burkina Faso: despite being a law-abiding citizen, your life could easily be cut down even when you are not out to harm anybody, let alone antagonize the NYPD.

On Friday, there was a funeral service for Ousmane Zongo at the Imam Konate's Mosque in Harlem. On Sunday, his body was conveyed back to Burkina Faso for burial.