Mayor Bloomberg yesterday defended Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s decision to restore gun rights to one of the cops involved in the shooting of Amadou Diallo.
“It’s his decision,” the mayor said yesterday at a question-and-answer session about Emergency Service Unit cop Kenneth Boss.
Boss is the only officer who remained on the force after the incident, in which an unarmed Diallo was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets on Feb. 4, 1999.
Boss and three other cops mistakenly thought Diallo — who was reaching for his wallet — was pulling out a weapon.
“I’m not a professional police officer,” Bloomberg said. “He runs his organization. He’s got to decide when it’s appropriate and when it isn’t. My experience with Ray Kelly for the 10 or 11 years we’ve worked together is that he has great judgment and most times I agree with him. Not all, but most.”
The shooting set off a firestorm during the Giuliani administration. But the cops were later exonerated.