Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Funeral of Woman Scared to Death in Police Raid is Today
Aired May 24, 2003 - 08:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: A new bruise for Big Apple cops. The New York Police Department is investigating the shooting death of an unarmed man by a plainclothes police officer. The African immigrant was shot four times after a chase in a storage facility. The officer had been guarding counterfeit compact disks found in a raid. Police say the man killed had no connection to the merchandise.
Friday's shooting came just one week after the New York P.D. mistakenly raided the apartment of a Harlem woman who was scared to death. Police thought she was a drug dealer. She wasn't. The woman's funeral is today and in her memory there is a push to get police to change their tactics.
More on that now from CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In her Harlem neighborhood, she was known as Miss. Alberta. Now there are just balloons asking for peace, her name in glitter, the flicker of candles and fear of the NYPD.
GWENDOLEN JONES, HARLEM RESIDENT: I just say I'd rather not call them. And it's sad to say that, you know, cause you always taught your children to respect the police. If you're in trouble, you make sure you go to a police officer. The children are scared.
HINOJOSA: Fear and many, many questions.
SARAH BAILEY, HARLEM RESIDENT: What other information, investigations, surveillance did they have that would entitle them to use, first of all, such equipment; second of all, to go into this woman's apartment in the manner that they did?
HINOJOSA: The police say they had a search warrant based on wrong information from an informant that drug dealing was going on inside Albert Spruill's apartment. They burst in at 6:00 a.m. as Miss. Alberta was dressing for work. The 12 police were heavily armed and threw a concussion grenade. They also handcuffed her. The flash of the grenade and the anxiety scared her and she died of a heart attack soon after.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: This is a mistake. It is a tragedy. We are doing and will do everything we can to see to it that something like this does not reoccur.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us all bow our heads in a moment of silence.
HINOJOSA: Now, residents and authorities are asking if the police tactics were at all legitimate. The city, meanwhile, has suspended the use of the grenades and is investigating the incident.
Former Police Sergeant Pat Russo used to train officers on how to conduct proper raids.
PAT RUSSO, FORMER NYPD POLICE: The thing I would instill in the cop that was taking the class is picture you're home in your house with your family and 10 guys come knocking down your door at six o'clock in the morning and throwing a grenade in your house, just think of how you would feel.
HINOJOSA: Police say these warrants are part of an effort to curb drug dealing. But now Mayor Bloomberg is struggling to keep this from becoming just another incident in the NYPD's long history of conflicts with the African-American community and police misconduct. MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: And I don't think there's anything we can say to bring back this woman who died an innocent person.
HINOJOSA: Now her Harlem community hopes Miss. Alberta's death will raise questions about police tactics and force them to change.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 24, 2003 - 08:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: A new bruise for Big Apple cops. The New York Police Department is investigating the shooting death of an unarmed man by a plainclothes police officer. The African immigrant was shot four times after a chase in a storage facility. The officer had been guarding counterfeit compact disks found in a raid. Police say the man killed had no connection to the merchandise.
Friday's shooting came just one week after the New York P.D. mistakenly raided the apartment of a Harlem woman who was scared to death. Police thought she was a drug dealer. She wasn't. The woman's funeral is today and in her memory there is a push to get police to change their tactics.
More on that now from CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In her Harlem neighborhood, she was known as Miss. Alberta. Now there are just balloons asking for peace, her name in glitter, the flicker of candles and fear of the NYPD.
GWENDOLEN JONES, HARLEM RESIDENT: I just say I'd rather not call them. And it's sad to say that, you know, cause you always taught your children to respect the police. If you're in trouble, you make sure you go to a police officer. The children are scared.
HINOJOSA: Fear and many, many questions.
SARAH BAILEY, HARLEM RESIDENT: What other information, investigations, surveillance did they have that would entitle them to use, first of all, such equipment; second of all, to go into this woman's apartment in the manner that they did?
HINOJOSA: The police say they had a search warrant based on wrong information from an informant that drug dealing was going on inside Albert Spruill's apartment. They burst in at 6:00 a.m. as Miss. Alberta was dressing for work. The 12 police were heavily armed and threw a concussion grenade. They also handcuffed her. The flash of the grenade and the anxiety scared her and she died of a heart attack soon after.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: This is a mistake. It is a tragedy. We are doing and will do everything we can to see to it that something like this does not reoccur.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us all bow our heads in a moment of silence.
HINOJOSA: Now, residents and authorities are asking if the police tactics were at all legitimate. The city, meanwhile, has suspended the use of the grenades and is investigating the incident.
Former Police Sergeant Pat Russo used to train officers on how to conduct proper raids.
PAT RUSSO, FORMER NYPD POLICE: The thing I would instill in the cop that was taking the class is picture you're home in your house with your family and 10 guys come knocking down your door at six o'clock in the morning and throwing a grenade in your house, just think of how you would feel.
HINOJOSA: Police say these warrants are part of an effort to curb drug dealing. But now Mayor Bloomberg is struggling to keep this from becoming just another incident in the NYPD's long history of conflicts with the African-American community and police misconduct. MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: And I don't think there's anything we can say to bring back this woman who died an innocent person.
HINOJOSA: Now her Harlem community hopes Miss. Alberta's death will raise questions about police tactics and force them to change.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
