Police that fired Fifty rounds claim it wasn’t overkill
February 27, 2008
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Three policemen are on trial over the death of a man killed in a fusillade of 50 bullets on his wedding day.
In the dramatic opening of the trial, prosecutors recreated the chaos of that fateful night as they sought to portray the unarmed groom as the victim of reckless, trigger-happy detectives.
Lawyers for the officers did not dispute the degree of firepower in the killing of African American Sean Bell, 23.
But they argued that the shooting was justified because their clients had ample reason to believe Mr Bell and his friends were armed and dangerous as they left a Queens strip club in the early hours of November 25, 2006.
The woman Mr Bell was to marry, Nicole Paultre-Bell, wept as she testified about going to the hospital where she learned Mr Bell was dead.
Detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver are charged with manslaughter while Detective Marc Cooper is on trial for reckless endangerment.
Oliver fired 31 shots - including the one that killed Bell. Isnora squeezed off 11 shots, and Cooper fired four times.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa told the judge that once the evidence is heard: “It will be clear that what happened cannot be explained away as a mere accident or mistake. It can only be characterised as criminal.”
Isnora’s attorney Anthony Ricco said there was evidence that Mr Bell was drunk and “out of control” as he left the strip club after his bachelor party.
Witnesses overheard Mr Bell exchange curses with another patron, and heard Mr Bell’s friend Joseph Guzman say to someone, “Go get my gat,” slang for gun, Mr Ricco said.
But Mr Testagrossa said that Oliver would have found there was no threat if he had “paused to reassess” while firing 31 of the shots. He emptied his clip, reloaded, and shot again.
Defence lawyer James Culleton estimated it took only nine seconds for Oliver to fire the 31 rounds.
However, Isnora’s attorney dismissed the notion that race played a role in the shooting.
Oliver and Isnora face up to 25 years in prison if convicted; Cooper faces up to one year on the lesser endangerment count.
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