It’s been eight years since Hawa Bah’s son, Mohamed Bah, was killed and one thing still bothers her to this day.
"That was my biggest regret of calling 911. If I know when you are black that they would kill you, I would not call," said Bah.
In 2012, Mohammad Bah was shot and killed by NYPD officers inside his Harlem apartment.
She shared her story Wednesday with a group of about 50 people gathered for a rally in Foley Square.
The rally was organized and held the day after the verdict was announced in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
She recounted the day her son was killed in an encounter with the NYPD during an interview with NY1.
She said that, at the time, all she wanted was to do was get her son medical attention.
Her son’s case, in the years since his death, has been associated with how the NYPD responds to cases involving people with a mental illness.
"I said, 'He never had mental health (issues) but now he started getting depression,'" Bah said of her son’s mental state at the time she called 911 for help in 2012.
"Before ambulance people come, the police show up. I said, 'I don’t call you, go away,''' she said of how the events unfolded on the day her son was killed.
The officers involved have always maintained that Bah was shot after charging at them while armed with a large knife.
A grand jury declined to indict the officers involved but a jury at a civil trial held the city liable for Bah’s death.
His mother told NY1 that he was a good person. She told us that nearly a decade later, she’s still fighting for change to ensure other families don’t have to experience what she’s been through.
"I don’t want nobody to face what I do with my baby son. I really don’t," Bah said.
In February, the de Blasio administration briefed City Council members on a plan to change who the official response to calls involving people suffering a mental health emergency.
There has been criticism in recent years that the NYPD should not be involved in responded to such cases.
As it turns out, the bill being proposed is no longer being worked on within City Council and is not moving forward.
The bill, which sought to create an Office of Community Mental Health and proposed sending social workers and EMTs, not police officers, to nonviolent mental health emergencies, has stalled entirely.
NY1 has learned that the sponsor of the bill is aware that the bill is no longer being worked on and that discussions have been held with advocates to ensure that they were also aware of this.
Last month, Bah’s mother wrote an opinion piece published by the New York Daily News which said she did not think the bill would have saved her son’s life.
Ultimately, what Bah does want to see is the officers involved in her son’s case are held accountable in some fashion.
"Our life will never be the same. I will never be the same, me and my family," Bah said.
She said that she would like to see the officers involved in her son’s death fired and stripped of their pension.
She said it is the responsibility of the NYPD and mayor to ensure that it happens if they truly support police officer accountability in cases where members of the public are killed by law enforcement.
The city did defend the officers involved in the civil case brought by Bah’s mother.
According to the NYPD, one of the two NYPD officers involved in the Bah case is retired, and the other is still active within the department.
