A New York man was charged in the death of his wife’s would-be rapist Tuesday, NYPD officials say, after he fought with the assailant when catching him fleeing their apartment.
Mamadou Diallo, 61, was taken into custody by police and charged with manslaughter. Officials say the rape suspect Earl Nash, 43 a career criminal, attacked a 51-year-old woman as she was returning to her apartment Monday night, beating her with a chair and causing bruises before attempting to take off her clothes. But she was able to break free and call her husband, Diallo, on her cellphone, who was outside of the building. Once she reached him, he immediately rushed inside.
Diallo confronted Nash in the sixth floor hallway as he attempted to run and the two men fought. Police say Nash struck Diallo with a belt, but Diallo responded by connecting to Nash’s skull with a tire iron.
He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead.
Diallo said it was “self defense’ and that Nash “threatened my wife” as he was taken into custody.
Nash had 19 arrests before he was killed and did a total of nine years in prison for a 2006 drug and bribery conviction, the New York Daily News reported.
Relatives say that Nash was a deadly threat and that Diallo’s reaction was justified.
“The guy punched him, he started fighting,” Diallo’s brother Ibrahima told the Daily News. “This man said he’s gonna kill him, kill his family.”
