Police acquitted over NY shooting

The wail that came up from the crowd was as if they heard that Sean Bell had died again.

"No!" they shouted, while dozens of people, wearing Bell's face on hats, T-shirts and buttons, burst into sobs.

The scene unfolded outside the courthouse Friday as three police officers were cleared of all charges in the 2006 shooting of Bell, who died in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.

Hundreds of friends of Bell and others wanted vindication for what they called a racially motivated shooting, and they reacted with tears and explosive anger to the officers' acquittal.

Many people in the predominantly black crowd began reciting other cases where black New Yorkers were shot by police, and the officers, they said, got away with it.

"This was a disgrace, what happened today," shouted Calvin Hutton, a Harlem resident. "We prayed for a different result, but we got the same old bull——."

Sean Bell, 23, who was black, was shot as he left a strip club in the suburb of Queens in November 2006.

Two detectives, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, faced charges of manslaughter. A third, Marc Cooper, had been accused of reckless endangerment.

The case had generated accusations of police racism and brutality, and there were angry protests outside the court.

Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, walked out of the packed courtroom as soon as Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman cleared the three officers of all charges.

"The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified" in firing, the judge said.

The verdict was welcomed by a spokesman for the police union.

The defendants had opted to have a judge decide the case rather than a jury, arguing that pre-trial publicity could have prejudiced jurors.

Undercover

Bell and two friends were apparently trying to drive away from the Kalua club when the incident occurred early on the morning of 25 November 2006.

Updated, 10:55 a.m. | The crowd is all but dispersed. A few stragglers are leaving with their signs. Some are still talking to reporters with television cameras. Most of the people still here are reporters and the most vocal activists. The Rev. Al Sharpton, the Bell family and other figures in the case are long gone. Traffic is back to normal on Queens Boulevard.

10:10 a.m. | Mr. Sharpton, Sean Bell’s parents, other family members and supporters marched out of the courthouse a short time ago and left without making a statement. As the procession passed through the throng of Bell supporters, journalists and police officers, a young man briefly forced an elbow against a court officer’s neck, but there were no arrests. There was briefly some pushing and shoving, but officers moved in and the crowd calmed down.

9:50 a.m. | The crowd continues to express anger for the cameras, but is relatively calm as supporters of Sean Bell’s family wait for them and Mr. Sharpton to emerge to make a statement.
“They got away with murder in there,” said Calvin B. Hunt, a man in the crowd, which continued to spill into two of the three westbound lanes of Queens Boulevard, slowing traffic to a crawl.
William Hargraves, 48, an electrician from Harlem brought his 12-year-old son, Kamau, to the courthouse this morning. He said this verdict parallels the outcome of previous police shootings of black men. “Connect the bullets,” he said. “How many times did they shoot Diallo? Forty-one times. They were acquitted. They got a pension.”
His son said: “I think it’s not right, because they shot him 50 times. They knew he was hurt, and they kept shooting him. He didn’t even have a gun.”