GIULIANI DEFENDS OFFICER, SAYS UNARMED SUSPECT WAS
CAREER CRIMINAL

NEW YORK (AP) -- The morning after an undercover officer fatally shot
an unarmed man in the Bronx neighborhood where Amadou Diallo was also
killed, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Thursday he could not guarantee
similar police shootings would not occur there in the future.
"How can I say that it's not going to happen again?" he said at a news
conference about the shooting of Malcolm Ferguson. "When we cure drug
dealing, significant violent crime -- when we cure all that, then this
will not happen again."

The Ferguson shooting, which brought about 100 angry protesters to the
neighborhood Wednesday night, came at a particularly tense time in
police-community relations in the city: Six days ago an Albany jury
acquitted four white undercover officers for firing 41 times at Diallo
in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building, and a Brooklyn jury
is considering the fate of three officers charged with concealing the
police torture of Abner Louima.

On Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Diallo's parents met with
Justice Department officials in Washington to try to persuade the
federal government to pursue charges against the four officers who
gunned down their unarmed son. During the meeting, protesters marched
outside to demand federal action.

And a nationwide Harris Poll released Thursday found that 76 percent
of black Americans and 45 percent of whites believe police brutality
against minorities is relatively common.

Both Diallo and Ferguson were black and lived in the Soundview
neighborhood of the Bronx. Residents' fear and loathing of police
officers was ripe there on Thursday.

They got away with Diallo," said neighbor Yolanda Jones, 34. "Now,
all of a sudden, they think they just have the right to pull out and
shoot."

City officials however, took pains to draw distinctions between the
February 1999 police killing of Diallo and the shooting of Ferguson,
who was described Thursday as a career criminal with arrests for
robbery, burglary, heroin trafficking, possession of a handgun,
selling heroin and resisting arrest. At the time of his death he was on
parole for a heroin selling conviction.

"He'd been arrested several times while on parole but somehow was
never put back in prison which is where people who violate parole
should go," said Giuliani.

City officials described the shooting this way: At about 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, a six member team from the department's housing bureau
anti-drug squad saw Ferguson, 23, William Cadiz, 28, and Julio Reyes,
24, engaged in "suspicious activity" outside an apartment house at
1045 Boynton Ave.

All three had previous arrests for drug dealing or drug possession and
the four story apartment building has been the scene of 86 drug
arrests since 1997. Reyes, who lives in the Boynton Avenue building,
had been arrested Feb. 7 when police found 90 glassine envelopes in
his apartment.

"The building itself is considered a prime drug location," said
Giuliani. "The area is an area in which significant numbers of
shootings and homicides have taken place," he added. "It is one of the
top 10, 12 precincts for crime in the city."

When the officers identified themselves, the three men ducked inside
the building. "We have statements from the other two individuals that they
knew they
were police officers, that they had their shields out and they in fact
said, 'Police officers, don't move,"' said Safir.

Ferguson ran inside and Officer Louis Rivera, a four-year veteran,
gave chase toward the back of the building and up some stairs.
"Police officer Rivera chased him and it appears that at some point a
struggle took place and the police officer's gun went off," said
Giuliani. "We don't know if it was accidental or intentional,
intentional meaning as part of the struggle in protecting his life.
But one bullet entered Mr. Ferguson, the side of his head, and killed
him."

Safir said a witness saw Rivera and Ferguson struggling, but did not
see the gun. Investigators found blood on Rivera's gun and $360 in small
bills and
glassine envelopes containing heroin on Ferguson's body. Ferguson was
also wearing two sets of clothing -- which may have been an effort to
avoid arrest, police said.

he Bronx District Attorney's office is investigating the shooting and
the case is likely to be presented to a grand jury. Rivera has refused
a request to be interviewed by investigators, said Steven Reed,
spokesman for the district attorney's office.

Giuliani said Rivera has 126 arrests and four medals and "is
considered to be an exceptionally skilled police officer." Rivera also
has two civilian complaints against him, both found to be
unsubstantiated.He has been placed on modified duty pending the outcome of the
investigation, which is standard police procedure.