CBS NEW YORK VIDEO SCREENSHOT
A husband has been arrested after police said he beat a man to death who was allegedly trying to sexually assault his wife inside their apartment in the Bronx, but his family and friends said he did the right thing.
Mamadou Diallo, 61, has been charged with manslaughter, police said.
It all began around 9:30 p.m. Monday at an apartment on Washington Avenue and East 168th Street in the Morrisania section.
Diallo’s wife, Nenegale, was at home when she answered a knock at her door. That’s when police said an attacker, now identified as 43-year-old Earl Nash, pushed his way in and began beating Nenegale and ripping her clothes off.
Nenegale’s sister was in a back room of the apartment and rushed out to break up the attack, and then the wife was able to break free and grab a phone to call her husband, who was outside the building, police said.
“They were fighting for like 20 minutes and my mother finally called my dad,” their son, Abdul Diallo, said.
Police said that call sent Mamadou Diallo running into the building where he caught his wife’s attacker who was running away. A fight broke out in the hall and police said Diallo returned with a tire iron, beating Nash unconscious.
Abdul Diallo walked in after the confrontation.
“The guy was in the elevator, he was all bloody and the neighbors were surrounding him,” he said.
Nash, who has been arrested 19 times before, was rushed to Lincoln Hospital where he died from his injuries.
Diallo was arrested for attacking Nash, but family and friends say those charges aren’t warranted.
“It was so quick that Mommadou Diallo had to use something to defend himself,” friend Kamafing Sissoko told CBS2’s Magdalena Doris. “The first thing you see, that’s what you’re going to use.”
Abdul Diallo said he would have done the same thing.
“I think any husband would do the same thing as what he did,” he said. “You see your wife being attacked and sexually harassed, you’re going to beat on the person. You are not just going to sit there and let the person leave or whatever. So I don’t think he’s wrong.”
He also said none of the neighbors came to help his mother while she was being attacked, 1010 WINS’ Glenn Schuck reported.
“I’m mad because 20 minutes and nobody heard the commotion that was going on? Nobody came in to see what was going on,” he said. “They just came at the end when my dad was fighting with the guy. It was too late.”
Nenegale Diallo is recovering from cuts and bruises she sustained during the incident.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Mayor’s office released a statement in response to the incident.
Source: CBS New York
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