Results tagged “Sean Bell”

A judge found Councilman Charles Barron guilty of disorderly conduct for sitting in the middle of Tillary Street to protest the Sean Bell verdict. Unsurprisingly, the East New York Councilman — a one-time candidate for Brooklyn Borough President who is considering running for Council Speaker against Christine Quinn — had a message for the man responsible for his prosecution. "[Brooklyn District Attorney] Charles Hynes should be ashamed of himself," said Barron, who was sentenced to time-served, which was about six hours according to the Post. "He should not be allowed to come into any black church this Jan. 21 and celebrate Martin Luther King Day."

A Queens community voted to name a block after the man who was killed there in a hail of police gunfire. NY1 reports that "Liverpool Street between 94th and 95th Avenue [will be] 'Sean Bell Way.'" Sean Bell had been celebrating the night before his wedding at a strip club-lounge when he and his friends were caught in a confusing confrontation with police—undercover cops thought Bell and his friends had a gun (they were unarmed) while Bell and his friends thought the cops were trying to carjack them—that left Bell dead and his friends injured. (The cops were later found not guilty.) Bell's family was happy with the decision; his mother told NY1, "It was one good stepping stone, because my son's name will be seen out there on the street," while his fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell said, "I just want people to realize the person who Sean was, and he was a great man. And this tonight proves that there are people who do understand. And do realize that he was a great man, a great role model."

On November 25, 2006, groom-to-be Sean Bell and his friends were leaving the Kalua nightclub in Queens when undercover police confronted them. In the ensuing confusion (the police thought the men were armed or were retrieving a gun, uncertainty over whether the police identified themselves and whether Bell and his friends thought they were being carjacked) five undercover cops fired 50 times at Bell's car. His friends were wounded and Bell, who was to be married the next day, was killed. Earlier this morning, his family, friends, and supporters held a vigil marking the second anniversary of his death. While three police officers were found not guilty in April, Bell's family has met with federal authorities, who may pursue a civil rights case. The Reverend Al Sharpton said, "They've assured them they were doing a full investigation. We don't know what the outcome will be but ... the family is still demanding justice in this matter."

A judge found the Reverend Al Sharpton and seven other protesters guilty of disorderly conduct. Sharpton had organized a number of civil disobedience events around the city to protest the acquittals of three police officers whose gun fire killed unarmed Sean Bell in November 2006. Sharpton had promised to shut down the city with the protests, which was situated at bridge and tunnel crossings and over 200 people were arrested, though most of the cases were ultimately dismissed. WNBC reports that Sharpton and the other defendants were sentenced to time already served (Sharpton had served 5 1/2 hours in jail).

Today, the Reverend Al Sharpton and others who demonstrated in a number of civil disobedience events around the city back in May went to court for the start of a non-jury trial. They were protesting the acquittals of three police detectives who fired 50 shots at unarmed Sean Bell and killed him in 2006, and Sharpton, who had promised to shut the city down by organizing the protests at bridges and tunnels, was arrested on May 7. Sharpton, who rejected an offer to plead guilty for time served (he was held for 5 1/2 hours), said, "We wanted to stop violence, not cause violence."

The Jamaica, Queens nightclub that Sean Bell went to before being fatally killed by police gunfire had finally been closed, if only temporarily. Authorities, from the police department (performing stings) and State Liquor Authority (which stripped it of its license), and the community tried to shut it down but it was done in by mice that the Health Department found. The Post reports a sign simply says the club is under renovations.

The RAND Corporation issued the findings of a report that commissioned by the NYPD in the wake of the Sean Bell shooting. Among the recommendations were that the NYPD should incorporate more realistic scenarios into its firearm training and increase the number of non-lethal weapons carried by personnel on the street.

Al Sharpton: Politician. Gadfly. Cyclist?

Though acquitted of criminal charges in a bench trial last month, the three detectives involved in the fatal 2006 shooting of Sean Bell will face police department disciplinary charges. Four other officers involved with the shooting, supervising the undercover operation and working on the crime scene were also charged.

              

Two hundred sixteen people were arrested during pray-ins protesting the acquittals of three police detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell. The NY Times called the demonstrations "carefully orchestrated," as hundreds of (perhaps a thousand) people gathered at six different locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, blocking traffic and attracting arrest.

Hundreds of people gathered at six different locations in the city to protest the acquittal of three police detectives in the Sean Bell shooting. They blocked traffic at the Queensboro Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Manhttan Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge, and arrests were made at the Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge.

Today at 3 p.m., six pray-ins are planned around Manhattan and Brooklyn to protest the Sean Bell shooting verdict. The Reverend Al Sharpton is leading the events and has said he and other participants are willing to be arrested to make a point about the acquittals of the three police detectives who helped fire a total of 50 shots at the unarmed Bell on November 25, 2006. Sharpton said, "If you are not going to lock up the guilty in this town, then I guess you'll have to lock up the innocent."

Al Sharpton released the locations and schedule of his civil disobedience capaign, which is supposed to take place next week. The purpose is to maximize public inconvenience, and Al Sharpton decided that it would be more effective to have as many people show up as possible, as well as to let the NYPD where they were going to be in advance. NY1 reports "The goal of the protests is to tie up traffic and force police to make arrests.

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers visited the site where Sean Bell was fatally shot by police officers. He was accompanied by people including Bell's friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were also fired at, and the Reverend Al Sharpton.

The Reverend Al Sharpton is planning a series of rallies and acts of civil disobedience in the wake of the acquittals of three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell. Bell, who was a few hours from his wedding, was unarmed when undercover police fired at him 50 times outside a Queens strip club on November 25, 2008.

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating allegations that just hours after the not guilty verdict was issued in the Sean Bell shooting trial, a number of crank calls were made to the home of Nicole Paultre Bell's parents by someone connected to a police union. The calls were both hang-ups or someone laughing--"Ha ha ha"--on the other end of the line.

Last night, hundreds of people marched from the Queens courthouse to the Kalua Lounge, the strip club where Sean Bell was killed on his wedding day, yelling, "Fifty shots equal murder," to protest yesterday's not guilty verdict for three police officers charged in the shooting.

Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, who were acquitted of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting trial, spoke at a press conference this afternoon. Detectives Oliver and Isnora thanked Judge Cooperman for his "fair" decision (Isnora also, per City Room, "thanked God, his family, his lawyers"). Detective Cooper, who was only charged with reckless endangerment, said, "I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy." None of the detectives testified during the trial, as their grand jury testimony had been read aloud by the prosecution.

Update: Queens DA Dick Brown just held a press conference with his prosecution team to discuss Judge Cooperman's not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial. While many fault the prosecution's case against the three cops as the reason for its outcome, Brown defended the work of everyone involved in the case, stressing the amount of time and effort put into preparing the best prosecution possible.

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Judge Arthur Cooperman is expected to announce a verdict for the three police officers on trial for the shooting of Sean Bell.

The Reverend Al Sharpton held a press conference on the steps of City Hall today to discuss the Sean Bell shooting trial verdict, which will be announced on Friday. Sharpton said an acquittal would not be justice.

Lawyers made closing arguments in the Sean Bell shooting trial today to Judge Arthur Cooperman, who is presiding over the bench trial. Defense lawyers argued that the police officers on trial were acting in self-defense.

Yesterday, a doctor who treated police shooting victim Joseph Guzman was the prosecution's last witness, detailing how Guzman was riddled with bullets. Guzman's friend, Sean Bell, was killed in the gunfire, and two undercover detectives face manslaughter charges while another faces reckless endangerment charges for the shooting.

in a hail of police gunfire. In recalling the man holding a gun, who turned out to be an undercover detective, stood near Bell's car, "He shot me. I’m looking in his eyes, man. He shot me. Everything slowed down. But I’m looking at him shooting me. He’s continuing to shoot.”

One of two friends in Sean Bell's car on November 25, 2006 testified in a Queens court room yesterday about the night where undercover police fatally shot Bell. Trent Benefield, who had been celebrating Bell's bachelor party at a Queens strip club, said he wounded, laying on the sidewalk, when he begged a man standing over him, "Please don’t shoot me. I don’t got nothing to do with nothing.’" The man turned out to be an undercover cop.

Yesterday, a NYPD trajectory expert testified about the fatal 2006 shooting of unarmed man on his wedding day. Crime scene detective Michael Cunningham, only called to examine the evidence seven months after the incident, testified he was unable to determine some trajectories because measurements supplied by the crime scene unit team were inaccurate.

Detective Michael Oliver, the undercover cop who fired 31 times at Sean Bell in the fatal November 2006 shooting, told a grand jury last year, "I didn't want to die. I reloaded the gun, and I continued to fire."

A Queens DA took the stand yesterday, to testify about a detective who fired at Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed in a barrage of police gunfire hours before his wedding. DA Michelle Cort, who took Detective Marc Cooper's statement after the November 25, 2006 shooting, said, "He told us he fired a single shot. He was certain he fired one time."

Attention turned to the car that Sean Bell and his friends were sitting in and a gun that was instrumental in his death at the trial of three police accused of killing him. Cops at the scene accuse Bell of striking one of the detectives with the Nissan Altima in an attempt to flee the scene, initiating a barrage of gunfire that mortally wounded the driver and seriously injured his two passengers. The bullet riddled sedan was thus examined closely during the trial to decipher whether evidence substantiated officers' claims or disputed them.