On November 25, 2006, Sean Bell went out with friends for his bachelor party. After leaving a strip club where the party was held, Sean was shot and killed by plainclothes New York Police Department detectives. Five police officers fired at least 50 rounds (I think the actual number is higher) at Bell’s car, which included two other people. The bullets ripped into other cars, an apartment window near the shooting scene, and Jamaica AirTrain station. Both the mayor of NYC and the ex-governor of NY called this excessive.
Those instances we know is a fact. What is not clear is what led to his shooting.
According to Wikipedia:
Version one as told by an undercover officer:
“One of Bell’s friends was heard to say “yo, get my gun” as they left the scene. Fearing a shooting was in the making, the Undercover Detective followed them to their car while alerting his Backup team that they were possibly retrieving a gun from the car, prompting the team to confront Bell and his companions before they could leave the scene. [13] The undercover officer followed the group and Bell was ordered by the officer to raise his hands after getting in his car. Instead, Bell accelerated the car and seconds later hit an unmarked police minivan.”
Version two as told by Sean’s friends:
“…the detectives never identified themselves while they approached the vehicle with drawn weapons.[9] Another source also told New York Daily News that the officers failed to warn Bell before opening fire and started firing immediately upon leaving their vehicles.”
All of the defendants opted for a bench trial rather than a jury trial. Smart move seeing how people were up in arms upon finding out that yet another unarmed man was shot to death by the police. On his wedding day. On April 25, 2008, all three of the police officers indicted were acquitted on all counts.
According to My Way:
Upon hearing the verdict, “Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to “close this city down” to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.
“We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians,” Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. “This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell.”
Sitting behind Sharpton as he spoke were Bell’s parents, his sister and Nicole Paultre Bell, who took her fiance’s name after his death.
“The justice system let me down,” Paultre Bell told the crowd in a soft voice. “April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again. That’s what it felt like to us.”
Sources:
Wikipedia
