Posted on 11/27/2006 12:36:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg was "deeply disturbed" by the barrage of gunfire unleashed by officers in a weekend shooting that killed a groom on his wedding day, the mayor said Monday.
"I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired, but that's up to the investigation to find out what really happened," Bloomberg said after meeting with community leaders at City Hall.
Bloomberg was joined by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record) and several other officials at the meeting.
Sharpton called it a "very candid, a very blunt meeting." He said the message to Bloomberg was: "This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men."
Bloomberg was steadfast in his support for Kelly, who has been denounced by some community leaders over the shooting.
"I think he's the best police commissioner the city has ever had," Bloomberg said. "Nobody takes this more seriously than Commissioner Kelly and I do."
Police fired an estimated 50 rounds at the groom, Sean Bell, 23, and two other unarmed men in a car early Saturday, hours before he was to have married the mother of his two children.
Five officers were placed on paid administrative leave and stripped of their guns, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Police and prosecutors promised a full investigation.
"This warrants an answer," Rangel said as he arrived for the meeting. "Not just to the families of those that were shot and killed but to the people of the city of New York."
On Sunday, several hundred people held a vigil for Bell, some shouting "No justice, no peace!" and demanding Kelly's ouster.
Kelly has said police shot at the car after it drove forward and struck an undercover officer and an unmarked police minivan. The information was based on interviews with witnesses and two officers who did not fire their weapons, he said.
However, Trini Wright, a dancer at the strip club where Bell's bachelor party was held, told the Daily News she was going to a diner with the men and was putting her makeup bag in the trunk of their car when the police minivan appeared.
"The minivan came around the corner and smashed into their car. And they (the police) jumped out shooting," Wright, 28, told the newspaper for Monday editions. "No 'stop.' No 'freeze.' No nothing."
Kelly had said Saturday it was too early to say whether the shooting was justified. He said it was unclear whether the officers, who were in plain clothes, identified themselves before firing.
Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, made a quiet visit to the site of his shootings before dawn Monday, lighting candles clustered around a photograph of the smiling couple with one of their daughters.
The shootings occurred after 4 a.m. Saturday outside the Kalua Cabaret in Queens. Kelly said the confrontation stemmed from an undercover operation by seven officers investigating the club.
Bell was struck twice. Joseph Guzman, 31, was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition Monday and Benefield was stable.
The officers' shots struck the men's car 21 times. They also hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no residents were injured.
Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun, but investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.
According to Kelly, the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club, and one of his friends referred to a gun.
An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, the car drove forward, striking the officer and minivan, Kelly said.
That officer was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. He had served on the force for five years. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.
It was the first time any of the officers, all of whom carried 9 mm handguns, had been involved in a shooting, he said.
At some point, Bell backed the car onto a sidewalk, hitting a building gate, police said. He then drove forward, striking the police vehicle a second time, Kelly said.
The department's policy prohibits shooting at moving vehicles states "unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle."
This isn't the first time the NYPD has come under scrutiny over officer-involved shootings.
In 1999, police killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from Guinea in western Africa who was shot 19 times. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges. And in 2003, Ousmane Zongo, a native of Burkina Faso in western Africa, was hit four times, twice in the back. In that case, one officer was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, but acquitted of the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Rangel said the latest shooting "reminds me of a tragedy that took place with Mr. Diallo. And we can't have that. We can't have that."
___
Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.
So goes the story; but in truth; they were armed. . . the victims just happen to be IN it. . .
This driver was using his car as a weapon. . .bigger than a gun; and more threatening as it takes less skill to 'aim' and kill. The driver - now - victim, made the 'move' first by running into a policeman, for God's sake.
Bottom line; the car they were in; WAS used as a weapon; and the police responded to the threat.
Sorry; but they should have walked home. . .or had someone pick them up. . .called a cab OR. . .whatEVER.
And someone should tell Rangel; Sharpton and the 'et al's to go fly their kites somewhere else. . .
. . .because "Stuck on stupid' has consequences. . .
Bloomberg's fault.
I am sure the Mayor as well as the New York Times will remind the community.
One can fairly observe as well, that using one's car as a weapon; gives more than a slight coloration to the fact of being 'unarmed'. . .)
True enough, and the perps were in the car and they saw an undercover cop with a gun...I bet they had no idea it was a cop...mistaken identity..they thought it was a rival gang member or something...too bad for them.
The club has a metal detector on the door (nothing says "class" like a metal detector. The officers were undercover, so they were not carrying. One of Bell's group was heard saying he was going to "get his gun," which he had presumably smuggled in. At wich point the officer called for backup. The car was parked out on the street. The victims got into the car. The cop put his foot on the car, and showed his badge, telling them to get out of the car. Bell tried to run him over, causing lacerations to the officer's leg. Thus, Bell was assaulting the officer with a deadly weapon. The other officers knew there was a gun invovled, and assumed that the shots that passed through the car were coming from the car.
Nothing good happens at 3:30AM.
Apparently Sharpton feels blacks are unfairly targeted by police. But when police are confronted with deadly force, they have to take appropriate measures to prevent innocent people from getting killed. That's their job. Maybe if they had fired off only ten rounds, more people would be happy. But the guy would still be dead.
One hispanic cop fired 29 of the rounds, because he thought his gun was jammed.
Some have opined that he was deeply disturbed BEFORE the gunfire. ;-)
"unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle."
The fallacy of that policy is that the moving vehicle itself can constitute deadly force. If someone was running over people on the sidewalk, wouldn't the police be justified in firing at the driver?
2 QUESTIONS!
1. Did anyone in the press or the "protest group" of race baiters like Sharpton and Jackson ask about the status of the police officer who was the target of the driver who was using his vehicle as a deadly weapon?
2. Were any of the shooting officers African-American?
BTW: Racial politics aside there are plenty of reasons to be critical of and/or defend the police.
You Watch! That idiot Bloomberg will have the NYPD running around with billyclubs in no time.
He sure is. He was just on the 4PM News here in his soundbite and he is saying "there is no evidence that the victims had done anything wrong"!!!!
WTH?
When I was growing up my Father told me that nothing good happens after midnight. How right he was.
Whatever happened to the olden days when cops carried "throw-downs" so they could avoid messes like this?
bttt
Oh, now "one of the dancers" says that the minivan came around a corner and "smashed into" Bell's car?
Obviously, the lies are escalating. I'm getting tired of the headlines and leads that depict a "groom" in his tux & tails running down the church steps with his blushing bride, friends and family throwing rice and birdseed, flower children strewing rose petals and blowing bubbles, doves being released into the afternoon sky and a bunch of cops coming out of nowhere to ambush the happy couple and assassinate the new hubby.
So a bunch of black cops shoot a black bad guy who tried to run one of their own down?
Seriously, I fail to see where race is a factor except inside the minds of Al Sharpton and certain Freepers.
If this was some drunk redneck outside some "Boars Nest" bar in Podunk, AR, we would have never heard about it.
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