NY police cleared in 50-bullet murder of Sean Bell
NEW YORK (AP) — Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower.
Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including victim Sean Bell’s fiancee and parents, and at least 200 people gathered outside the building.
The verdict provoked an outpouring of emotions: Bell’s fiancee immediately walked out of the room. His mother cried.
Outside the courthouse, which was surrounded by scores of police officers, many in the crowd began weeping as news of the verdict said. Others were enraged, swearing and screaming “Murderers! Murderers!” or “KKK!”
Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 — his wedding day — as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends.
Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged only with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren’t charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.
The officers, complaining that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury.
The judge indicated that the police officers’ version of events was more credible than the victims’ version. “The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified” in firing, he said.
A conviction on manslaughter could have brought up to 25 years in prison; the penalty for reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, is a year behind bars.
The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo — an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration.
The mood surrounding this case has been muted by comparison, although Bell’s fiancee, parents and their supporters, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, have held rallies demanding that the officers — two of whom are black — be held accountable.
Still, a phalanx of police officers, some uniformed and some in the department’s community affairs polo shirts, was stationed outside the courthouse Friday. The building was ringed by metal barricades. Some in the crowd wore buttons with Bell’s picture or held signs saying “Justice for Sean Bell.” After the verdict was read, some in the crowd approached officers but were held back; the jostling quickly died down.
After the verdict, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that some people were disappointed with the acquittals.
“We don’t anticipate violence, but we are prepared for any contingency,” he said.
The nearly two-month trial was marked by deeply divergent accounts of the night.
The defense painted the victims as drunken thugs who the officers believed were armed and dangerous. Prosecutors sought to convince the judge that the victims had been minding their own business, and that the officers were inept, trigger-happy aggressors.
None of the officers took the witness stand in his own defense. Instead, Cooperman heard transcripts of the officers testifying before a grand jury, saying they believed they had good reason to use deadly force. The judge also heard testimony from Bell’s two injured companions, who insisted the maelstrom erupted without warning.
Both sides were consistent on one point: The utter chaos surrounding the last moments of Bell’s life.
“It happened so quick,” Isnora said in his grand jury testimony. “It was like the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
Bell’s companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — also offered dramatic testimony about the episode. Benefield and Guzman were both wounded; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body.
Referring to Isnora, Guzman said, “This dude is shooting like he’s crazy, like he’s out of his mind.”
The victims and shooters were set on a fateful collision course by a pair of innocuous decisions: Bell’s to have a last-minute bachelor party at Kalua Cabaret, and the undercover detectives’ to investigate reports of prostitution at the club.
As the club closed around 4 a.m., Sanchez and Isnora claimed they overheard Bell and his friends first flirt with women, then taunt a stranger who responded by putting his right hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. Guzman, they testified, said, “Yo, go get my gun” — something Bell’s friends denied.
Isnora said he decided to arm himself, call for backup — “It’s getting hot,” he told his supervisor — and tail Bell, Guzman and Benefield as they went around the corner and got into Bell’s car. He claimed that after warning the men to halt, Bell pulled away, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene with Oliver at the wheel.
The detective also alleged that Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.
“I yelled ‘Gun!’ and fired,” he said. “In my mind, I knew (Guzman) had a gun.”
Benefield and Guzman testified that there were no orders. Instead, Guzman said, Isnora “appeared out of nowhere” with a gun drawn and shot him in the shoulder — the first of 16 shots to enter his body.
“That’s all there was — gunfire,” he said. “There wasn’t nothing else.”
With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers claimed that they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again, as the supervisor sought cover.
The truth emerged when the smoke cleared: There was no weapon inside Bell’s blood-splattered car.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:43 am
We been covering Sean Bell’s case over at Highbrid Nation from the start and when I read today that the police officers were acquitted I was in serious disbelief. An unarmed man was shot 50 times and the people who did it are not responsible at all!? That’s crazy.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I’m reposting this here because, despite the anger we all justifiably have due to the injustice of the Sean Bell case, we need to harness this anger toward productive uses.
If things are ever going to improve for African-Americans, we have to redouble our efforts to gain social, political and economic power here.
Remember, time and demographics are both on our side. Whites now have a birth rate well below replacement in the USA, while the African-American population grows steadily both by natural growth and immigration from Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. Even some Blacks immigrating to the USA from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. (BTW if any of you can speak Spanish and/or Portuguese, please encourage our Black brethren in Latin America, especially from Brazil, to emigrate to the USA. There’s strength in numbers.)
I know Blacks and Latinos have often been at loggerheads, but we’re natural allies– both fighting against White oppression, with Latinos having been invaded in multiple wars by the Anglos in Florida, the Mexican-American War and Spanish-American War. Latinos lost half of Mexico when Anglos invaded in 1848, and were ethnically cleansed by Anglos so that they could start slavery in the conquered territories. Blacks and Latinos today are natural partners in the fight for social justice, both fighting for affirmative action and against discrimination. Spanish is an easy language to learn, and the more that we reach out to each other, speak some Spanish ourselves, and support our Latino brothers and sisters, the more our alliance is cemented.
I’d say if anything, the key for us is to gain political power, and to do that, it’s best to concentrate ourselves geographically a bit more in a few states, where we will soon be the majority. On the one hand, we need Blacks throughout the country to demand our rights, but on the other, a better geographical focus is the key to political power, as it is throughout the world’s democratic countries.
IOW, we need to have our own “North American Nubia” where we have a demographic majority and political power. Some Deep South States are obvious candidates– Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana for example, all of which will soon be Black-majority within perhaps a decade. This would be a core of our nation.
But we can have a second North American Nubia (or North American Africana, whichever name you prefer) in the Upper Midwest– Michigan is one of the Blackest states in the Union, and much of Illinois is also strongly African-American in demographics, culture and social importance.
Some of my homies from college have even urged conversion to Islam for African-Americans. It’s not something I’ve considered myself, though I’ll acknowledge that at least for many urban African-Americans, they’ve done quite well after the conversion. Many having been in jail or kept out of jail, they become more focused and disciplined, as fathers they take care of their Black children and care better for Black women, stay away from drugs and violence and so forth. (interesting link here– Nubian Manifesto http://tinyurl.com/4u9jd5 )
IMHO there are many different personal routes we can take for empowerment, but as a group, we must stay strong and focused and, again, have enough of a geographic concentration that we can gain political power. Just as we should ally with Latinos as they become the majority in their own homelands in Southwestern states and Florida, so should Blacks ally with Muslims in Michigan (who will soon be the majority in that state).
It’s obvious from our people’s history here, that we’ll survive only by standing up for ourselves. Political and economic empowerment are the central aspects of this.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
When a police officer speaks - Stop - listen and obey and you won’t die.
The police is ultimately there to help and protect our black community from ourselves. Are all whites smart upstanding citizens that respect the police….
Nope - bad is bad and people are people - respect your environment, respect the police and you will thrive just like the whites, the jews, the asians, the europeans, the……..
Do you have to be a member of a special race to be successful ? - Nope - just be an individual person who respect a lawful society. Go to school - avoid gangs and crime and you too can live in peace just like a white person
April 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Over shooting in this case should be crime by it self! Not counting [reloading]!once again the government should step in and take control when judges rule in officers favor when it is CLEARLY wrong of the so called PROTECT AND SERVE!
April 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
What sholud government do - the solution is simple don’t harm other people and the police (who are HUMANS) won’t over react.
Pay taxes - smile at police officers they have a difficult job stopping drunk thugs from harming innocent black victims - How about the wives and children of the police officers who though they might die when their vehical was smashed into by a criminal who in all likely hood had a gun
Blame the drunken - angry - individulas who did not respect the lawfull innocent people that live in the community or themselves. As proof they are now dead.
It is the governments job to serve us…..And they did. They saved countless other victims from death or worse at the hands of people like Sean.
Black people need to respect the police - they keep our streets a little safer by doing their best to prevent these mean individuals from steeling and killing and raping our loved ones
GO TO SCHOOL and RESPECT AUTHORITY AND YOU WONT DIE from a police officers gun.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
The thugs in this case are the police officers who did the shooting as well as the police officials who sent them there.
Even if the police version is true (which I doubt) I cannot see any justification for ending the life of the driver, let alone attempting to murder the two passengers. The fact that the driver (not the passengers) tried to flee is not a reason to execute him or the others. There was nothing in the police version that truly made me feel the police were ever at risk of personal harm.
What a travesty of justice! The privileged class of people in law enforement are not held to the same legal standards as civilians, who are treated as second-class citizens. In my opinion, those responsible should be locked up for life. Certainly, none should be allowed to continue to work in law enforcement.
To make matters worse, it turns out that the detectives were sent that night, at taxpayers expense, on a mission to police the morals of private citizens minding their own business. Unfortunately, the ultimate cost for this foolishness ended up including human lives.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Police are to stop the threat! When an officer empties his weapon, reloads and empties that magazine, has gone beyond stopping a threat. This is bad intention. MURDER!!
@Rolland, have you ever smiled at a police officer and been accused of being intoxicated “because you look too happy?” A police officer pulled over a woman over here in the Atlanta area, had her car towed for a violation, he smiled at her and offered her a ride home. She smiled back and accepted his offer of the ride. Guess what officer friendly did? He put her in the car, drove her not home, but behind a building and raped her. This nice, hardworking officer, has destroyed this woman’s life and is now free on bond despite her painful pleas to keep him behind bars. Rowland, growup and live in the real world!
April 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
When an officer thinks he may die at the hands of a bad person he will save him or her self - Would it matter if they only used a single bullet or even wors Sean drove off in the state of drunkeness and killed a mom and her baby crossing the street.
Dont blame the police officer for protecting you from Sean
April 25th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Its thugs like Sean and the “bad cop” from above that good police officers like the officers involved in this protection and serving theircommunity did - they protect us, the responsible black folk who live among the gangs and thugs
April 26th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Angela Davis provided an excellent appraisal of the judicial/corrections systems in the United States of America, about a month ago at Mills College in Oaktown California.
As I listened to her speak, I wondered whether or not churches ought to be participating in Amnesty Programs in conjunction with local government(s). This may appear to be off topic, however, I keep wondering just how long the black community should help to feed the disproportional American justice system - we need our own!
I’ve been stopped 4 times myself by the police department, on one occasion riding from church with the Bishop. It’s not a good feeling when that blinding and paralyzing light is shining through the rear window of the car, knowing that one false move and you’re dead.
I also testified regarding the beating of a black woman by a white police officer in Richmond California. She was already handcuffed when he sprayed and beat her with his fists. We got his tail tossed out of the police department among other things!
There are good cops, however, there are also bad ones as well. The code word at LAPD, at one time,was NHI. NHI stood for ‘no humans involved’. NHI was customarily used when officers arrived at a scene where blacks were involved.
The FBI unofficially tracks the number of times a gun is discharged along with its standard Uniform Crime Statistics. It only takes one bullet in most instances to stop a person - American citizens and police officers are emptying their guns, too often on their fellow citizens.
Death by natural causes in some areas of the country means, being shot by the police department where blacks are concerned!
April 26th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
# 3 Rolland Howard Says:
April 25th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
When a police officer speaks - Stop - listen and obey and you won’t die.
Rolland,
Go the gravesites of Schwerner, Cheney and Goodman, and tell them how it was their fault that they were murdered!
April 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
For my last posting I am going to call it:
Survival of the Fittest:
Rev - Please release all of those poor wonderful beings currently in jail simply because of the color of thier skin - I am hoping these fine upstanding citenzens will move into your neighborhood - NOT MINE - That is my survival of the fittest
there is such a disproportunate amount of black people in jail because there is a disproportunate amount of black criminals
Ask yourself this - Why are there far more middle-eastern people living freely in America today and not in Jail - they give a *&^*^ about their surroundings and dont kill or rape or murder (as much) - Change your society into one truly of peace instead of condoning evil and condemning those trying to curb it.
In response to your last comment - I honestly dont know the situations of the people you refer to, but I am greatful for all of the vacant gravesites from the black criminals that gave up - listened and obeyed - At least they are only in jail ( away from me and my family!)
Peace
April 28th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Oh - I now know why I didnt recall the names listed above - there were from 1964 - Wow, we have come a long way - Arent we lucky that we live in a free society
April 30th, 2008 at 6:17 am
[...] the miscarriage of justice which was the Sean Bell verdict, I have been searching for some silver lining somewhere that might point to Divine Activity even if [...]
May 5th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I am a teenager who just heard about the tragic lose of Sean bell. It broke my heart to hear this and to know such an incident had happened. But to me this case is not yet solved the courts may have let the officers go but justice is not yet served.But i dare any man to be let free after commtiting such a crime just because of a fatal mistake. NO WEAPON was found in the victims car but yet a life was taken an the killers were set free. So you tell me if this was just a accident for it may have been in the eyes of many but in mine as a young girl i see murder not just because of what others say but because in my own heart i believe anyone who fires without any proof of being in danger should be prosecuted for no man has the right to kill another man. But i say to those who think the officers should have been let free if you believe in God you tell me WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? yes the police are here to protect us but what protection is there when we have to watch our backs not for people around us but also for the cops who are suppose to be on guard. Many kids i know are terriffied of the police why because the reputation of a cop has now been transformed into a nightmare which no one wants to face in any case. But to all people not just blacks i say do not fear any man but God!! America is my temporary residence for i dare not call it my home. The land of the free is what they say but freedom should be the freedom of living your life without such crimes as this. yes there will be up’s and down’s but death comes by God’s hands never by the hand of man. This comment is to all of you who think cops were just protecting us from sean you tell me what would you have done if that was your son in this car being shot for no logical reason by just a certain instinct the cops had. You tell me how would you take it? Either as protection or Murder? To Sean Bells family i say if our God is for us who could be against us for in due time justice will be served!!