High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Eleanor Bumpurs (August 22, 1918 - October 29, 1984) was an African-American woman who was shot dead on October 29, 1984, by police officers called to assist her city-ordered eviction from her apartment in the Bronx. The New York City Housing Authority was evicting her because she was four months behind in her rent of $96.85 per month. In requesting NYPD assistance, housing authority workers told police that Bumpurs was emotionally disturbed, had threatened to throw boiling lye, and was using a knife to resist eviction. When Bumpurs refused to open the door, police broke in. In the struggle to subdue her, one officer shot Bumpurs twice with a 12-gauge shotgun.