May 2003

Alberta Spruill, 57, a city employee, died of a heart attack after NYPD officers detonated a flash-bang grenade and broke down the door of her Harlem apartment. Police had acted on a faulty tip; the apartment was the wrong address. The city settled with her estate. The case prompted New York to reform no-knock warrant procedures.

NYPD officers conducted a no-knock raid on the Harlem apartment of Alberta Spruill, 57, a city employee, after acting on a faulty informant tip. Officers detonated a flashbang grenade; Spruill, who had a heart condition, died of cardiac arrest. Her apartment was the wrong address. The city paid her family $1.6 million. The case prompted a City Council review of no-knock warrant procedures.

NYPD officer Bryan Conroy shot and killed Ousmane Zongo, 43, a Burkinabe immigrant and art restorer, four times in the back during a DVD counterfeit raid in a Chelsea storage facility. Zongo had no connection to the raid's target. Conroy was convicted of criminally negligent homicide — one of the rare NYPD convictions — and sentenced to five years' probation.

Ousmane Zongo, 43, a Burkinabe immigrant and art restorer, was shot four times and killed by an undercover NYPD officer during a raid on a Chelsea storage facility targeting CD counterfeiters. Zongo had no connection to the suspects. Officer Bryan Conroy was convicted of criminally negligent homicide — one of the few NYPD officers convicted in an on-duty shooting.