Police compensate Diallo claim officer

Diallo's death strained community relations

The New York City Police Department has agreed to reinstate and compensate a black woman officer sacked after the shooting of unarmed West Indian immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999.

Police were accused of targeting black men like Amadou Diallo

Yvette Walton was fired after publicly accusing the police of singling out young black or Hispanic men for searches.

Authorities denied that her dismissal was connected to the Diallo affair but a judge ruled last year that it had been a "retaliation" and ordered her reinstatement.

Four police officers who fired 41 times at Mr Diallo were acquitted of all charges after testifying that they believed he had been drawing a gun when he had actually been pulling out his wallet.

'Vindication'

Under a settlement reached between Ms Walton's lawyers and the police, she is to be formally reinstated on the understanding that she will retire with full benefits and will receive $327,500 in back pay and legal fees.

A lawyer representing Ms Walton from the New York Civil Liberties Union, Christopher Dunn, said his client had been "completely vindicated".

"She intends to move on with her life," he added.

A lawyer for the city of New York, Georgia Pestana, said he believed the settlement was "the most prudent course of action".

Freedom of speech

Ms Walton was sacked after she accused the police's Street Crime Unit of racial profiling during media interviews in the weeks following Mr Diallo's killing on 4 February 1999.

Her dismissal came on the same day she spoke out at a meeting of the City Council, where she kept her face covered with the hood of her sweatshirt.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled in November 2001 that Ms Walton's constitutional right to freedom of speech had been violated and she had been fired improperly.

"I find that Walton's dismissal was in retaliation for the exercise of her First Amendment rights," he said.

City officials said the reason for the dismissal was not connected to the Diallo affair, but to disciplinary offences at work.

Ms Walton, they said, screamed at a supervisor in July 1998 and disobeyed an order, as well as breaking other departmental rules.