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April 25, 2008

A tense scene at the Queens courthouse

Posted: 05:02 PM ET

NEW YORK – From the moment I arrived at the Queens County Courthouse, I knew tensions were high and emotions were volatile. The verdict was about to be announced in the Sean Bell case. This is the case in which a 23-year-old groom-to-be was shot dead by New York Police detectives November 25, 2006.

Bell was concluding his bachelor party in those early morning hours when 50 shots came from the guns of five police detectives. Three of those detectives had been charged, and two of the three, if convicted, could have been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The officers said those bullets were justified because they reasonably believed that Bell's friend had a gun and would use it on them.

Now, after a lengthy trial, Judge Arthur Cooperman was to deliver the verdict. He presided at a "bench trial" because the defendant detectives gave up their right to a jury trial and asked for a judge to determine their guilt or innocence.

A few minutes after 9 a.m., people started running out of the courthouse, screaming, "Not guilty!" Hundreds of supporters for Bell and his friends voiced their objections to the verdict through protests that got very loud as I was doing my live shots.

Law enforcement officers circled the courthouse, forming a security base in case emotions ran too high. They did not. Protesters remained peaceful. When Bell's fiancee and family left the courthouse, supporters followed them as they made their way to Bell's gravesite.

Once again, we see a family that has lost a son, a fiancee who lost her future husband, police officers who said they reasonably believed that they were in danger themselves and a very experienced judge who looked at the facts and the law to render his verdict.

Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

Filed under: Uncategorized


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Mark E   April 26th, 2008 4:31 am ET

I've been reading reports suggesting that the prosecutors work closely with the police department, and therefore were not interested in getting a conviction. If this is true, justice was betrayed before the trial began.

Craig   April 26th, 2008 7:41 am ET

I don't think this was an issue of race as 2 of the 3 officers are balck. However, 50 shots is WAY excessive and just crazy! I also think most judges are going to side with law enforcement officals. The detectives were smart to waiive their rights to have a jury trial

JD   April 26th, 2008 11:40 am ET

I agree with the lady that said 50 shots is murder. These are men that are in a car and they can't get out. The police can hide behind cars or whatever, and take more shots if they feel in danger. To stand there and fire 50 shots on people trapped in a car, its like shooting ducks in a barrel. If this happened in canada, those police officers would have never seen the light of day. And the public would not let them get away witrh such an injustice...

White Man
Calgary, Alberta

Brian, Detroit, MI   April 26th, 2008 8:07 pm ET

Well, from what I have heard, Sean Bell was driving drunk and he almost ran over one of the cops while intentionally trying to hit him. If that's not cause to shoot, I don't know what is.

Clark   April 27th, 2008 7:03 am ET

I'm tired of cops getting away with deadly mistakes. I was falsely accused of a felony and jailed for a month before it was discovered the cops made some very serious and costly mistakes. I never even got an apology from anyone in their department. Why is it that the hardest thing for humans to do is say they were wrong?

Rhonda   April 27th, 2008 9:00 pm ET

This is so disturbing for all involved, the victims, the families, the officers his lovely girls have lost from all accounts a wonderful young man, last but, not least the country!! That's right our country!! I just hope for his family they can someday find comfort that they deserve as well as the officers!!!

Diane from Alabama   April 27th, 2008 11:57 pm ET

Bravo CNN!

Your converage of Jeremiah Wright 's NAACP speech was a service to all Americans, irrespective of our race, SES, political affiliation, or religious ideology. Finally an alternative interpretation of the American experience has been articulated in a very public forum at a time that some may find politically incovenient. Despite many political pundits' and some citizens' attempt to detract from the long standing issue of inequality in America, which continues to the present, by relying on fallacies that target the messenger while ignoring the message, Dr. Wright's speech indisputably impresses upon all listeners the importance of examining our own values, especially as it relates to how we perceive "different" others. How one reacts to this message will be determined my one's own needs or motives. If one seeks understanding, he or she will listen without prejudice and seek additional information about our society, all members of our society and not just individuals who look, behave, and believe as we do. On the other hand, if one seeks to villify the messenger and therefore forsake the message altogether, then this allows one to remain in his or her comfort zone, a zone that exists apart from the real world where facts are discarded for fanatsy. Hence, it is each of our responsibility to engage in introspection, asking ourselves if we are ready to face the truth, which runs counter to ethnocentrism and narcicism. The truth holds that although we can neither run from nor deny our past, we can learn from it and allow it to inform our present and future. True change only comes when we collectively work through the shame, pain, and frustration and learn to celebrate ourselves and others.

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