MORRISANIA — The man who beat his wife's would-be rapist to death said he did not mean to kill anyone but had to protect his family, according to reports.
Mamadou Diallo, who fatally attacked ex-con Earl Nash on Monday after Nash had tried to rape his wife, was arraigned on assault charges Tuesday night but released without bail and later told reporters he did not want to be a hero or a killer.
“I’m fighting for my family and myself,” Diallo said, according to the New York Daily News. “Look, if anybody touches my family, I fight for my family. I called police, police (don’t) arrive, I’m fighting for myself.”
Diallo said he still felt bad about Nash's death and did not consider himself a murderer, according to reports.
“I’m not happy because I know a man died, and I know they put my name with somebody who died,” he said, according to the New York Post. “I do not want to kill that man.”
Nash, 43, pushed his way into Diallo's Washington Avenue apartment on Monday around 9:30 p.m. and attacked his wife, Nenegale Diallo, but she and her sister were able to fend him off and call her husband, who returned to the apartment and fatally beat Nash with a tire iron, according to the NYPD and court documents.
He was initially arrested for manslaughter, but his charges were downgraded to assault, and he is due back in court on June 27.
Diallo's attorney Anthony Michaels described him as a hardworking and decent man, adding that several people had reached out to him expressing their support for Diallo and offering to pay his expenses
"You have to realize that the victims in this incident are clearly the defendant and his family, and they didn’t go out looking for trouble, but trouble certainly came to them," he said. "And you know, I mean if you would present this scenario to anybody, certainly what occurred would be understandable."
