Posted on 04/25/2008 6:22:46 AM PDT by Dallas
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A judge has acquitted three NYPD detectives of all charges in the shooting death of 23-year-old Sean Bell on Friday. Bell was gunned down in a hail of 50 bullets outside a Queens strip club on what would have been his wedding day in November 2006.
The highly anticipated verdict, which many see as holding far-reaching social ramifications for New York City and its police force, comes after seven weeks worth of testimony without a jury.
Detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver, faced up to 25 years behind bars for manslaughter charges, while Det. Marc Cooper faced a year in jail on reckless endangerment charges.
The detectives, who were responding to complaints about prostitution at the club, have claimed they fired their guns only after Isnora identified himself as a police officer and Bell's car nearly ran him over.
Oliver fired 31 shots in the incident, Isnora fired 11, and Cooper fired four times.
Defense attorneys had said there was evidence that Bell was drunk and "out of control" when he left the club. Witnesses overheard Bell exchange curses with another patron, and heard one of the passengers in the car, Joseph Guzman, who was also shot, say to someone, "Go get my gat," slang for gun. They had also argued Bell had tried to run over Isnora with his car.
Investigators found no gun at the scene.
Prosecutors argued that Oliver would have found there was no threat if he had "paused to reassess" while firing the 31 shots. They said that Cooper fired wildly, with one of his shots even hitting an elevated airport train station. And they alleged that Isnora failed to display his badge in a clearly visible manner and wait for backup, and gave contradictory orders to Bell and his friends.
Bell was supposed to be married at Community Baptist Church in Jamaica the same day of the shooting. On Thursday night, that hallowed ground became the site of a spiritual rally of sorts as an entire city waited for a verdict that had been anticipated for months.
Inspirational words were uttered by the Rev. Al Sharpton for the community and Sean's family.
"We have no hate. We have no malice. We seek no revenge. We put in God's hands. And in God's own time this city will deal with justice," Sharpton said.
Bell's fiancé and mother have been overwhelmed by the unwavering support they've received since his death.
"I want to start by thanking you all (for) sticking by my family – my other mother and my other father and me. And supporting us because God knows we need it," Nicole Paultre Bell said.
Outside the courtroom, the NYPD had preparing for any post-verdict scenario or protests.
"We certainly have no reason to expect violence," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday. "There's been many demonstrations, memorials, marches since the incident took place. We've done things that the public would expect us to do to prepare for any contingency."
Added Bishop Lester Williams: "How can you celebrate officers who are supposed to take care of you and are now going to jail, if that is the case? And then how can you celebrate if they don't go to jail. The loss that that family will [have to] endure [will last] forever, so there is no victory. We have to sit down and make sure this does not happen again."
Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 for continuing coverage of this developing story.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Ambivalent on this one.
And so do prosecutors and judges.
Or the fact that two of the cops were black made Rev Al’s normal modus operandi inoperable.
I don’t know the facts of this story.
But if the car was still moving, they probably would have continued firing until it stopped. And that could have easily been fifty shots later.
Oh yeah. Cops are all liars, (especially the one hit twice by a car) and Criminals are innocent little angels. Tell me how does one fake injuries of getting hit twice by a car? Must have had hit liar cop friends beat him up with a bumper huh?
“Probably not. I’m sure that’s why the judge gave the cops a total pass.”
They may have not been deserving of prison, but those cops definitely need to be fired for gross incompetence for their “spray-and-pray” reaction to the situation.
I noticed that Michael Oliver is Lebanese, Gescard Isnora is half Black and some other ethnic group. I don’t know where the last name Isnora is from, let alone Gescard. Marc Cooper is Black.
In order for this to be effective, one has to be precise in the aim, something this situation did not allow, however, shooting a tire would have been a viable option, but the car would careen out of control, thus causing more damage. The only remaining option is to stop the vehicle by harsher means. So, yes this situation justified the use of all of those rounds.
It’s 11:30pm on Saturday night. No “riots” at all, as some expected. Should I still be waiting for them to start?
I am a little surprised that the defense was able to introduce the Grand Jury testimony without violating the hearsay rules. Usually, if a witness is available you can’t bring in a prior statement without calling them to the stand to face cross examination. So, here it appears that a judge decided to believe the police officers testimony (whose demeanors he didn’t get to observe and who it sounds like were not cross examined) over the plaintiff’s witnesses who actually gave testimony in open court. If the DA agreed to let those transcripts in then that was a huge mistake. You always want the defendant to be forced to testify in order to get their story before the court.
I’ve been involved in dozens of cases defending actions of the police. I can’t think of a single instance where every single police officer involved did not lie to everyone—including (or especially) their own attorneys—from the beginning to the end of a case. It’s really gotten so bad that everyone involved in the court system knows that they cannot believe anything a cop says. Everything, everything, everything, is embellished or an outright falsehood. It does not make the task of convicting real criminals any easier and it’s part of the reason so many criminals are not convicted—no one believes the cops anymore.
It’s a given in every courtroom in this country that no judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, plaintiff’s attorney, or civil defense attorney believes anything a cop will say in court.
It's pathetic, but some idiots believe that.
That’s the biggest load of BS I have ever seen posted here.
Here are maps and photos of the crime scene with the original cars in place. Click photos one through ten at the top of the page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/nyregion/20061129_SHOOTING_GRAPHIC.html
Thank you.
I do know that if I were in a car and people in street clothes (or worse) with guns approached me I do whatever I had to get out of there. Stopping and asking questions isn’t an option.
so if the blacks riot, will it drive down property values to make my rent cheaper?
LOL she gets 1 percent of the black vote vs. Obama... Obviously the blacks are only voting for Obama because of the issues /s
My friends father is a DA back home, and says the same thing. My friend (his son) used to be a cop, and was forced out because he wouldn’t cover up a couple of cop’s drunk driving.
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