The story begins just before dawn on November 25th, 2006. Sean Bell is hours away from getting married to fiance Nicole Paultre Bell and wrapping up an all-nighter bachelor party with his friends. He walks out of the Kalua Club in Queens as it’s closing, a strip club with complaints of guns, drugs and prostitution. Meanwhile, undercover detectives are inside the club, and plainclothes officers are stationed outside. An argument breaks out just as Bell begins to leave with his friends. One of them, Joseph Guzman, is seen going to Bell’s car, at which point the officers assume the worst: he is going to get a gun. Cops follow Bell and his two friends and call for backup.

This is where the drama unfolds. Bell, Guzman, and Trent Benefield get into the car, Bell in the driver seat. The detectives draw their weapons. Benefield and Guzman would later testify that they never heard the painclothes detectives identify themselves as police, sending Bell into a panic to get away. Detectives, believing Bell is trying to run them down, open fire. A total of 50 bullets were fired among the five NYPD officers, three were charged with crimes. (A video demonstration of how quickly Oliver could have fired off 31 rounds, including a pause to reload can be seen here.) Benefield and Guzman are wounded and Bell lays dead. No guns were found among the friends. Nicole Paultre Bell, Benefield, and Guzman file a wrongful death lawsuit with the federal court in an attempt to provide justice for Bell and his loved ones.

Fast forward. Tears streamed down Nicole Paultre Bell’s face as she fled the courtroom today. Justice Arthur Cooperman announced earlier this morning, the verdict clearing Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell. Detective Marc Cooper was cleared of reckless endangerment.

No doubt an argument greater than that which triggered the fatal events was seen outside the courtroom, after the verdict. Some quotes…

The officers charged:

“I want to say sorry to Bell family for the tragedy,” Cooper said.

Isnora thanked the judge “for his fair and accurate decision today.”

Oliver praised Cooperman “for a fair and just decision.”

The outraged community, which you can see here:

“This case was not about justice,” declared Leroy Gadsden, chair of the police/community relations committee of the Jamaica Branch NAACP. “This case was about the police having a right to be above the law. If the law was in effect here, if the judge had followed the law truly, these officers would have been found guilty.

“This court, unfortunately, is bankrupt when it comes to justice for people of color.”

Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Police Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said “there’s no winners; there’s no losers” in the case.

“We still have a death that occurred. We still have police officers that have to live with the fact that there was a death involved in their case,” Lynch said.

“You can’t be proud of wearing that hat. You can’t be proud of wearing that badge,” a black woman shouted at a black police officer. “You must stop working for the masters! Stand down! Stop working for the masters!”

“Fifty shots is murder. I don’t care what you say. That’s what it is,” another woman said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement saying, “An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son. No verdict could ever end the grief that those who knew and loved Sean Bell suffer.” source.

I keep trying to think of all the iconic lyrics from NWA to Tupac, and nothing matches the grief of this situation. Just rest in peace, Sean Bell. Your death isn’t in vain as long as you will be remembered.

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