Justice served in Sean Bell shooting case

Susan Filan Senior legal analyst

I know it sounds bad — 50 shots fired, a groom is dead, two friends seriously wounded and the cops who fired the shots were acquitted of everything by a judge after a seven-week trial.

People I know, like and respect have said that justice was denied, that cops have a license to kill, and that this is legalized murder.

While I understand this point of view, I disagree. I think the verdict was fair and justice was served.  

In order for the judge to have found the three detectives charged with Sean Bell’s murder guilty, the judge would have had to find that there was no justification for the shooting. But that just does not square with the testimony and evidence introduced at trial.

Justice Arthur Cooperman indicated that he did not find the prosecution witnesses credible and found the police officers' version of the facts more credible. He also said at times, the testimony just didn’t make sense.

What likely happened
While no one really knows just what happened that night, here is what seems to be the most likely scenario:

Sean Bell and his friends had been at the Kalua Cabaret Strip Club as part of a bachelor party the night before his wedding. At that time, the Kalua Club had been under investigation for suspected prostitution and drug offenses.

According to newspaper accounts, undercover officers were at the strip club that night, which was the last night of their two-month long investigation. Around 3:30 a.m., the undercover officers thought they saw the start of an altercation involving a man with a gun. 

They radioed their backup unit to tell them there was a man inside the club with a gun and that a fight was about to break out thinking it was getting “hot” and that something was about to happen.

Police testified that they thought they heard someone tell one of his buddies to go and get a gun.

Fearing a shooting was about to break out, they followed Bell and his two friends to their car.  Bell then pulled away, and bumped and rammed an unmarked police van. A detective said one of the passengers made a sudden move, as if going for a gun. In the officer’s mind, he thought, “gun” and fired. Once the shooting began, it was hard to stop and became chaos. According to an AP report, “with tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying,” the officers thought they were the ones being fired upon.

One detective thought his gun jammed so he reloaded. But by this time, he had already fired 15 rounds, and then fired 16 more. One officer fired 31 bullets from his weapon, another officer fired 11 shots, and a third fired four. Two other officers on scene did not discharge their weapons.

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