In this undated family photo, Sean Bell and his fiancee Nicole Paultre pose with their daughter.
Posted on 11/25/2006 2:29:19 PM PST by Brilliant
NYPD bullet kills groom on wedding day
NEW YORK - A bachelor party at a strip club ended early Saturday with police opening fire on a group of men leaving the establishment, killing a groom on his wedding day and wounding two others, one critically.
There was no immediate explanation for what sparked the shooting, which drew angry protests from family members and the Rev. Al Sharpton. The New York Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul Browne, declined to comment.
As many as eight officers may have been involved in the shooting near the Kalua Cabaret in Queens, said Sgt. Mike Wysokowski, another department spokesman. There were no reports that any officers were wounded, Officer Kathleen Price said.
"First it was like four shots," said Abraham Kamara, 38, who lives a few blocks from the scene of the shooting and said he was getting ready for work at the time. "And then it was like pop-pop-pop like 12 times."
The intersection where the shooting occurred remained blocked off Saturday afternoon as police inspected a car and a minivan and placed dozens of crime scene markers on the ground where shell casings had been recovered.
Denise Ford, who said her son was one of the survivors, said the trio's car had hit an unmarked police vehicle. Police did not immediately confirm that either of the vehicles in the intersection belonged to the department.
"All I know, they was celebrating," Ford said of the men. She said the man who died was the groom. "The guy was getting married today."
Relatives identified the man killed early Saturday as Sean Bell, 23. Sharpton said Bell and his fiancee had two children, ages 5 months and 3 years.
Sharpton said after visiting the two wounded men — Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31 — that he was outraged to find the pair handcuffed to their hospital beds. He said one suffered 17 wounds, though it was unclear how many were bullet wounds, and the other man was shot three times.
"We're not anti-police ... we're anti-police brutality," Sharpton said.
Sharpton said family members told him that there were no guns in the young men's car and "there was no reason for the police to shoot."
"On the face of it, it seems to me to be certainly something that causes extreme alarm and must be thoroughly investigated," said the civil rights leader, who said he was called by a relative of Bell.
Robert Porter, who identified himself as a cousin of Bell, said about 250 people were invited to Saturday's wedding and were flying in from all over the country. He said his cousin wasn't the type to confront police and was "on the straight and narrow."
Roy Brown, who said he works as a photographer at the club, said sirens sounded not long after the three men left the club.
"They weren't rowdy or nothing like that," said Brown, 57.
The owner of the building, Juan Escobar, would not say who owned the Kalua Cabaret. A message seeking comment was left at a phone number listed for the club.
One of the wounded men was in critical condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital and the other was listed as stable.
In 1999, NYPD officers killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the entry to his apartment building. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges.
In 2003, Ousmane Zongo, 43, a native of the western African country of Burkina Faso, was killed during a police raid on a warehouse where he repaired art and musical instruments. Zongo was shot four times, twice in the back.
Well, it was tongue in cheek.
Bump for later
It is a phrase I made up to approximately describe the characters one would encounter in a situation like this.
Perhaps, or perhaps an astute "conneting the dots" on my part, given this below in post #39:
The strip club was under police surveillance for prostitution, weapons and drug activity and one of Bell's buddies threatened an undercover cop in the club with a gun.
Yes, you do. Clearly an anachronistic idea. After all, in this post-modern era, out-of-wedlock bastard births are the "in thing." Role models like Oprah tell us so. You are still clinging to the virtues of a bygone era, whereas our "progressive" society has moved on to celebrate faggot husbands and unwed mothers and homosexual "marriages".
The undercover cop they threatened was a woman, too.
This nwrep guy apparently knew the bride. Or maybe he thinks poorly of her for not being white. What a surprise would it be if she turned out to be white, invovled in an inter-racial marriage with Mr. Sean Bell.. would she still be a gang banging crackhead to him or just a race traitor ? lol.
I refuse to apologize for being judgmental.
No one has brought that up---it's just an everyday fact of male America, right?
Sounds like you're already against the cops. Cops shoot a lot of innocent people, but this sounds like the real thing.
The news articles I'm reading today have no references to any threats these men made....although they do describe them driving their car into an undercover cop's car.
One cop yelled "he's got a gun!" - and the shooting commenced.
Victims were black - 3 of the cops were black.
Fiance is black, and the dead groom is the biological father of the 2 girls.
Whoops....I meant that as a reply to someone else...but I suppose it can be addressed to you too :)
"Yes, you do. Clearly an anachronistic idea. After all, in this post-modern era, out-of-wedlock bastard births are the "in thing." Role models like Oprah tell us so. You are still clinging to the virtues of a bygone era, whereas our "progressive" society has moved on to celebrate faggot husbands and unwed mothers and homosexual "marriages"."
hee hee!
I really do struggle with the notion "tomorrow" I'll pledge my undying love, respect, and devotion to the love of my life, but "tonight" I'm going to ogle at strippers!
The cuffs were later removed, and the cops admitted that there were no charges filed, nor were any planned to be.
Youre making stuff up. The man referred to a gun, didnt have one.
You are correct in that he did not have one, but he still threatened the undercover cop. That is all I was alluding to.
In this undated family photo, Sean Bell and his fiancee Nicole Paultre pose with their daughter.
In fact I didnt read anywhere that the person he had an altercation with was a cop? Could you post a link please? The whole story just sounds rather fishy.
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