Three NYPD officers indicted in Queens shooting

[Guest]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A grand jury has indicted three of five New York City police officers involved in the shooting death of a groom hours before his wedding, one officer's attorney and their union president said Friday.

A person with knowledge of the case said the other two officers were not charged, according to The Associated Press.

An official announcement of the grand jury's decisions will be made at 11 a.m. Monday, the Queens district attorney's office said.

But attorney Steven Worth said Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper were indicted by the grand jury. Worth represents Michael Carey, who he said was not indicted. Paul Headley is the fifth officer.

Earlier, attorney Paul Martin had told CNN that his client, Cooper, had been indicted.

"I'm disappointed. ... I'm shocked," Martin said.

Neither attorney was able to say what the exact charges are.

The president of the officers' labor union disagreed with the grand jury's decision.

"I do not think that the actions of the officers rise to the level of criminality," said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association.

In the early morning of November 25, hours before his wedding, Sean Bell, 23, and friends Joseph Guzman, 31, and Trent Benefield, 23, were at Bell's bachelor party at Club Kalua, a strip club. The five officers were at the club, undercover, investigating complaints of prostitution.

Guzman, Benefield and other members of the bachelor party say they were on their way home after the party when the officers began firing unprovoked.

The officers' lawyers and the New York Police Department say that Bell and his friends were retrieving a gun from a parked car after arguing with another patron, and that Bell's car struck one of the officers and an unmarked police minivan before police opened fire.

The officers fired 50 rounds: Headley fired one, Carey three, Cooper four, Isnora 11, and Oliver 31, which means he stopped to reload before continuing to fire.

The men who were shot were not armed.

The incident brought cries of police racism. Bell was black, as are his two wounded friends. Three of the officers are black; the other two are white. All five officers were placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been acting as a spokesman for the families of the shooting victims, called the indictments an important step against police violence, according to AP.

"The only way you make sure it doesn't happen again is you stop it, and you punish it and you send a signal that we live in a society where laws have to be respected," he said, according to AP. "So there is no joy, no vengeance, no party here."

Palladino said the officers had acted in good faith based on a perceived threat to public safety.

"The message that's being sent now is that even though you're acting in good faith and pursuant to your lawful duties, there is no margin for error."

Last-minute witness

Palladino told CNN that he heard from several sources that a last-minute witness testified in front of the grand jury Thursday.

The witness, a 55-year-old man, works overnight near the strip club. Palladino said the man walked into a Queens precinct station Wednesday and told detectives he was an eyewitness to the shooting.

Palladino said the witness told detectives that there was a fourth man in addition to Bell and his two friends, and that the fourth man fired one or two shots at the police officers. He also said he saw police officers shooting at the car in which Bell and his friends were sitting, according to Palladino.

On Friday, an attorney for Bell's parents said the credibility of the witness was at issue.

"There is a word for an individual who tells two different stories on two different occasions about the same event. I believe that word is a liar," Peter St. George Davis said.

On Thursday, Sharpton called on Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the new witness' credibility.

Sharpton told reporters that the witness' behavior is "suspect" because when the man was first interviewed by the Queens district attorney, he did not say he saw the shooting.

The fact that he came forward with that information to the NYPD instead of the district attorney's office, with whom he had already spoken, "smells of high heaven," Sharpton said.

District attorney spokesman Kevin Ryan said his office does not comment on grand jury proceedings.

Credit: www.cnn.com

[efd184 59]

i must speak my mind on this!

this is an absolute outrage that these men have been indicted on murder charges!

this is all because the big slob sharpton. the guys lives were put into danger when a bunch of thugs tried to hit them with a car. they fired to stop a threat now they face jail time. whats next they take the cops guns aways ? they let the animals do anything they want?

i hope the officers are found not guilty !

[sr71 1]

I love how the media portrays these officers as dirt. and how the "murdered" friends are saying that there going to get justice. the media fails to tell us the whole story and that these officers were defending themselves from a guy who tried to run them over. they were in danger and they had to shoot to stop the threat. there was no other option

[Remember585 815]

Bu!!s***, plain and simple. They prosecute Cops for defending themselves?! Man, you guys in Blue have it tougher and tougher everyday - God bless ya!!!