One of the New York City police officers who shot and killed unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999 will be honored as Sergeant of the Year Tuesday at the Sergeant's Benevolent Association, the New York Daily News reports.
Sgt. Kenneth Boss, who currently works with the NYPD aviation unit, is receiving the award for rappelling from a helicopter to rescue a couple who was stranded overnight on a small island, the news site reports.
Boss is one of eight NYPD sergeants who will be recognized at the annual luncheon to be held at Giando on the Water in the Williamsburg section of New York City's Brooklyn borough.
“The SBA realizes the hard work that is put forth by its members, so it’s very important that they be acknowledged for their momentous efforts throughout the year,” SBA President Ed Mullins said, according to the Daily News.
Boss was one of four officers who fired the 41 shots that killed 22-year-old Diallo, who was retrieving his wallet in the poorly lit vestibule of his Bronx, N.Y., apartment building in 1999. Boss was acquitted in Diallo's shooting death and chose to stay with the department.
As the Daily News notes, he was sued twice and lost the right to get his guns back until about 2012, when former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly relented.
Boss was promoted to sergeant in December.
The couple he rescued, 50-year-old Jenny Ly and her husband, Kevin Huynh, 52, said that they had never heard of the Diallo case and described Boss as "nice."
“He was very nice! First he came down and he asked me, ‘Are you OK? Do you need any medical attention?’” Ly told the Daily News. “He said, ‘You don’t need to do anything. Let me do all the work. Just hold my arm.’”
Diallo's mother, Kadiatou Diallo, didn't respond much to the report, saying that she is focused on the Amadou Diallo Foundation, which provides scholarships to students of African descent or students who have immigrated to the United States from Africa.
Read more at the New York Daily News.