Would-be-rapist incurs the wrath of an enraged husband

by Ukachi Uwadinobi

What would a married man do after learning that his wife had been attacked by an intruder who broke into their apartment and tried to rape her?  Mamadou Diallo, 61, an African immigrant living in the Bronx, New York found himself in that awful situation. He responded in a way that caught the attention of  New York with the news reverberating across the country and back to his native Guinea in West Africa.   Mr. Diallo, who had just finished his runs for the day as a livery cab driver in the city, was parking his car around 10:00 PM Monday night near the apartment building where he lives with his family when his wife called him on his cell phone.  What he heard was a chilling account of a traumatic episode she had just been involved in.  A male intruder had broken into their 6th floor apartment, dropped his pants and said, ‘I’m going to rape you!’’ the Daily Mail reported. The would-be-rapist allegedly punched Mrs. Diallo in the head and tore her clothes as she tried to resist. The terrified wife fighting back with all her might managed to escape and call her husband.

An enraged Mamadou Diallo grabbed a tire iron from the trunk of his cab and rushed to their apartment where he saw the suspect in the hallway and confronted him.  A fight ensued.  Mr. Diallo allegedly clobbered the suspect, later identified as Earl D. Nash, 43, with the tire iron.  Neighbors called 911.  An Emergency Medical Services crew came to the scene and transported the badly injured suspect to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, where he later died.  Police subsesequently arrested Mr. Diallo and charged him with manslaughter.   In the immediate aftermath a storm of reactions from the public exploded on social media, with some of the opinion hailing Mr. Diallo as a “hero-husband” and others condemning his action as jungle justice that ran counter to the rule of law.  The next day the District Attorney’s office lowered the manslaughter charge to assault.

Given how quickly controversial incidents tend to creep into the nation’s political arena especially during election season, some commentators in the media speculated that the adjustment of the charge from manslaughter to assault may be symptomatic of how potentially explosive the case could become around the intricate elements of politics and community relations in a city with a growing diversity of new immigrants.  Nonetheless, experts in the legal community say the case will still run its full course in the court of law and be adjudicated on the principle of jurisprudence and not the court of public opinion.
Mamadou Diallo was released on bail on his own recognizance to the loud cheers of his supporters and people of his Guinean immigrant community.  While his supporters see his release on bail on his own recognizance as a good sign elevating the prospects for an acquittal, some legal experts don’t necessarily agree.  They cite elements of the law that are crucial in the case.  For example, did Mr. Diallo find the would-be-rapist inside his apartment assaulting his wife?  The law experts argue that it would be unlawful to confront a suspect outside the location of the alleged incident and try to administer personal justice.  The most prudent thing to do in a situation like that, is to call the police instead of taking the law into your own hands.  The suspect allegedly was in the hallway when Mr. Diallo confronted him.  Another question that had been raised, from a legal perspective, was how did Mr. Diallo know it was the suspect he saw in the hallway that attacked his wife?   The case goes before a judge later in the month.  Meanwhile, Mamadou Diallo, in his African immigrant community in the Bronx, is being treated like a folk hero, who added a new line to the age-old traditional marital vows: “To love and to cherish and to protect!”

Posted by on Jun 17 2016. Filed under Community News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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