New York Cops Acquitted In Case Sharpton Was All Riled Up About - Updated With Chaos Outside Courthouse
Related Video: Al Sharpton Demands Jury Find N.Y. Cops Guilty
Related: The Scene Outside The Courthouse
NEW YORK (AP) - Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower.
Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including victim Sean Bell’s fiancee and parents, as at least 200 people gathered outside the building.
As word of the verdict spread, many outside the courthouse began crying and yelled “No!” Some briefly jostled with police officers.
Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006—his wedding day—as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends.
The officers, complaining that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury.
Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged only with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren’t charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.
A conviction on manslaughter could have brought up to 25 years in prison; the penalty for reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, is a year behind bars.
The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo—an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration.
The mood surrounding this case has been muted by comparison, although Bell’s fiancee, parents and their supporters, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, have held rallies demanding that the officers—two of whom are black—be held accountable.
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He wasn’t unarmed. A car is a weapon. You’re just as dead if you get run over by a drunk maniac as if he unloaded a shotgun into you.
And if he’d been white, Sharpton would’ve been screaming that the black cops were being railroaded.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:07 am
TTB, right on. Sharpton is an opportunistic scumbag.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:55 amtotally agree ttb
dead is dead and it doesnt matter how you get to that point. a car can definitely become a weapon.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:56 amI’m glad there was a trial. It was a high profile violent incident that needed to be looked into.
And, I’m glad the officers were acquitted. The community - including the black members of it - need to know that it’s wrong to threaten police and then get in a car and try to run them over.
It infuriates me the way the coverage of this has been one-sided. And all the reporters interviewing people holding signs talking about racist cops, we need a revolution, no justice no peace etc. NYPD has one of the most diverse police forces in the country. The guy they killed brought it upon himself.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:34 amhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,231946,00.html
“The incident began when a car full of three men rammed into an undercover officer as the group left a bachelor party at the Kalua Cabaret at roughly 4:14 a.m. ET Saturday. Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun, and opened fire, unloading 50 rounds and killing Sean Bell, 23.”
That there is all I need to know. Fuck him, not guilty!
April 25th, 2008 at 10:34 amAnd fuck fatass Al “Race Baitin’” Sharpton and his racist, equal but special mentality.
Hey Al. Time to make some money, racial verdict on the loose. Oh ya, and BTW, STFU!
April 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pmI have confidence in the judge’s decision.
A.S.S.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:26 pml h u
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