Geyla Queen
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Registration date : 2008-03-28
 | | Subject: New York Police Not Guilty of Manslaughter in Sean Bell Case Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:25 pm | |
| New York Police Not Guilty of Manslaughter in Sean Bell Case
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By Cynthia Gordy
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Credit: Courtesy of Nicole Paultre Bell
Sean, Nicole and daughter, Jada.
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(April 25, 2008—New York City) Nicole Paultre Bell, the fiancée of Sean
Bell, ran out of the courtroom immediately after a judged handed down a not guilty verdict for all three of the New York police detectives
indicted in Bell’s shooting death.
Bell and two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were shot in the early morning of November25, 2006, after Bell’s bachelor party at a Queens strip club. He and Nicole Paultre Bell were to have been married later that day. As the young men were leaving in Bell’s car, undercover
detective Gescard Isnora approached them with a gun. Guzman and
Benefield maintain that Isnora never identified himself as a police
officer. After the men tried to flee, Isnora and the other officers opened fire, releasing a total of 50 rounds and killing Bell. All three Black men were unarmed.
Inside the courtroom Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Coopermer cleared
detectives Gescard Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper on counts of
manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. Outside the courtroom in Queens, a growing crowd of about 500 people, most of them African-Americans, responded angrily to the verdict. “We are not going to keep getting shot down like dogs,’’ said one man to a row of television news cameras. “Animals get more respect.”
As a representative from the New York Police Department left the
courthouse, the angry crowd chanted “Murderers, murderers.”
Meanwhile, Paultre Bell wailed in the hallway, surrounded by tearful family members. The group then filed into a separate room.
Minutes earlier Cooperman announced his decision before a packed Queens
courtroom, prompting gasps of disbelief from those present. In a
15-minute statement, Cooperman explained his decision, saying it rested
on the grounds of inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case, including
varying witness statements, witness recantations and possible motives
witnesses had to lie.
“At times testimony didn’t make sense,’’said Cooperman. He went on to say the exchange outside the club that night was “heated.” Therefore he considered the mind-set of the
defendants. “Their actions were not proved to be criminal,’’ he said,
adding that “questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to
other forums.”
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Last edited by Geyla Queen on Sat Apr 26, 2008 12:12 am; edited 1 time in total | |
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Geyla Queen
Admin
Number of posts : 6443
Age : 46
Location : Atlanta, GA
Say Whatever : I'm still holding on.
My Mood :
Points : 4301
Registration date : 2008-03-28
| | Subject: Re: New York Police Not Guilty of Manslaughter in Sean Bell Case Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:29 pm | |
| This is not surprising to me. It happens over annd over. It's like the police are licensed to Kill and they take
that literally especially towards "Black Men".
My Prayers goes out to the family. | |
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