Mayor meets groom’s family in NYPD slaying

updated 9:09 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2006

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with the family of a black man who was killed on his wedding day in a barrage of police gunfire as he and two of his friends left his bachelor party. All three men were unarmed.

Three days after the fatal encounter, it remained unclear Tuesday why four detectives and one police officer opened fire while conducting an undercover operation at a strip club.

Police also questioned an unidentified witness who was on a darkened block in Queens when five police officers killed 23-year-old Sean Bell and injured two friends as the three sat inside a car, officials said.

There are two other civilian witnesses: One woman on the street who says she saw officers firing their weapons, and a second woman who from her window spotted a man running away from the area around the time of the shooting. Investigators tried to determine if that man had been with the three who were shot.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg went to the Bell family's Queens church, where he met for about an hour with the parents and fiancée of the victim, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton. The mayor then met at a restaurant with about 50 community leaders.

The mayor held a similar meeting Monday at City Hall in which he declared that officers appeared to use "excessive force" when Bell was killed hours before his wedding. He stood by his comments Tuesday.

"I am a civilian. I am not a professional law enforcement officer," he said. "I used the word excessive, and that's fine. That was my personal opinion. It may turn out to be that it was not excessive."

Some have questioned whether the shooting was racially motivated because the victims were all black men. The five officers who fired their guns included two blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.

Official warns of possible unrest
Councilman James Sanders Jr. of Queens said he warned Bloomberg about possible unrest.

"I alerted the mayor that the temperature on the streets has increased to a large degree," he said. "While we are sitting in these meetings, a lot of people are out on the streets."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said some tension was inevitable because of "the nature of what police departments do — we arrest people, we give them summonses, we're the bearers of bad news, we use force and sometimes we use deadly force."

Police investigators have not interviewed the officers because of a district attorney probe that could result in criminal charges, nor have the officers spoken publicly. An attorney for the detectives' union, Philip Karasyk, has called the incident "a tragedy, but not a crime."

Union officials familiar with the officers' account say at least one undercover detective was convinced there was a gun in the car. They also allege that Bell defied orders to stop and used the vehicle as a weapon, bumping the undercover detective and ramming an unmarked police van.

"They are genuinely concerned and very sympathetic toward the three men who were shot," said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association. "However, they are anxious to speak to the district attorney in Queens and tell their side of the story."

'No rush to judgment'
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Monday that his office was investigating the Saturday morning shootings and that the results would be presented to a grand jury.

“I will be guided only by the law and the facts,” Brown said in a statement. “I will reach no conclusions until the investigation is complete. There will be no rush to judgment.”

Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends wounded after a bachelor party at the strip club the night before his wedding. The men were unarmed.

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