New York detectives acquitted of groom's death

Three detectives were acquitted of all charges on Apr. 25 in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the New York police department at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower. Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including victim Sean Bell's fiancée and parents, as at least 200 people gathered outside the building. The slaying of Bell, who was black, outraged many in New York's black community, who contended that no white suspect would have been shot so many times, if at all. As word of the verdict spread, many outside the courthouse began crying and yelled, "No!" Some briefly jostled with police officers. Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a strip club in Queens on Nov. 25 2006 -- his wedding day -- as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers, complaining that pre-trial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury. Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged only with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren't charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times. A conviction on manslaughter could have brought up to 25 years in prison; the penalty for reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, is a year behind bars. The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration. "There is no justice in America," cried one man outside the courthouse after the verdict. . Bell's fiancee said that the acquittal was like "they killed Sean all over again." "That's what it felt like to us," said Nicole Paultre Bell. She appeared alongside his parents, both wearing T-shirts emblazoned with their son's picture, at a rally at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters in Harlem. Shooting victim Joseph Guzman also spoke. Saying the system had let her down, Bell said she was still "praying for justice." She and the two shooting survivors have sued the city in a civil case. A coalition of civil rights advocates are calling for a permanent state-level special prosecutor to investigate such cases. "The verdict in the Sean Bell case proves it is almost impossible to successfully prosecute cases of police misconduct, especially in homicide cases," said lawyer Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Siegel was joined at a news conference outside police headquarters by state Sen. Eric Adams and retired police officer Marq Claxton. Adams and Claxton co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. Adams, a former police captain, said the state-level special prosecutor's office should be reinstated permanently by law. A previous special prosecutor's office was created by former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1974 but abolished in 1993 by Gov. Mario Cuomo.