41 Shots is a photograph by Harris Wiltsher which was uploaded on March 10th, 2010.
41 Shots
This is a silkscreen print (not a photograph). There is no option for printmaking.... more
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Price
$400
Dimensions
30.000 x 22.000 inches
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Title
41 Shots
Artist
Harris Wiltsher
Medium
Photograph - Serigraph (silkscreen Print)
Description
This is a silkscreen print (not a photograph). There is no option for printmaking.
In the early morning of February 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo was standing near his building after returning from a meal. Police officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy passed by in a Ford Taurus when they thought Diallo matched the description of a (since-captured) serial rapist and approached him. The officers were in plain clothes.
The officers claimed that they loudly identified themselves as NYPD officers and that Diallo ran up the outside steps toward his apartment house doorway at their approach, ignoring their orders to stop and \"show his hands\". As the suspect reached into his jacket, Carroll believed Diallo was drawing a firearm and yelled \"Gun!\" to alert his colleagues. The officers opened fire on Diallo and during the burst McMellon fell down the steps, appearing to be shot. The four officers fired forty-one shots, hitting Diallo nineteen times. Investigation found no weapons on Diallo\'s body; the item he had pulled out of his jacket was not a gun, but a wallet.
The title was inspired more by Bruce Springsteen�s lyrical reaction to this sad incident rather than the amount of gunfire.
Is it a gun, is it a knife
Is it a wallet, this is your life
It ain\'t no secret
(It ain\'t no secret)
It ain\'t no secret
(It ain\'t no secret)
No secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in
Your American skin
As a Bronx, New York native, I could only imagine how this scene erupted and I wanted to give the viewer some sense of how one�s mindset could take control of a situation and lead to a bad outcome.
Uploaded
March 10th, 2010
