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REV. AL SEEKS INDY PROBE IN NYPD SLAY

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN and NEIL GRAVES
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May 27, 2003 -- The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday called on Gov. Pataki to appoint an independent special prosecutor to probe last week's shooting of an unarmed African immigrant by police during a Chelsea warehouse raid.

Sharpton said an independent investigator was needed because a probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau held "glaring possibilities of a conflict of interest," since the DA's Office authorized the raid that led to the death of Ousmane Zango, an artisan at a West 27th Street storage facility.

"The Manhattan District Attorney's Office cannot investigate themselves," said Sharpton during a Harlem press conference with Zango's family.

But Pataki, awaiting the results of the DA's investigation as well as an internal NYPD probe, declined to get involved at this time, a spokeswoman said.

Mayor Bloomberg, noting that he had "enormous confidence" in Internal Affairs and the DA, also said an additional probe was probably not necessary.

Sharpton questioned why Zango, a 43-year-old illegal immigrant with no prior arrests, would inject himself into a raid — for counterfeit CDs — that did not concern him.

Adama Zango, Ousmane's uncle, said his nephew "came looking for money to make life easier" for his wife and two children back in Burkina Faso.