NY Police officers shoot groom: Was it justified?

[Levi]

I'm sure if any of you have been watching the news you’ve heard about the outrage in NY because 5 police officers opened fire on a group of men in a car & killed the driver of the car, a soon-to-be-groom Sean Bell & wounded others in the car with him. They were @ a strip club & I am speculating but they could have been drinking. They rammed into an un-marked police vehicle twice & was about ready to do it again, until the police officers shot & killed the driver & wounded the others. IMO from what I am reading & hearing on the news, I don't understand the outrage @ the police just yet. An undercover police officer inside the bar heard one of them say something about a gun, the fact the driver was ramming into the unmarked police vehicle & some of the passengers were suspects in some crime. After hearing about all of that, I'm not about to lynch the officers just yet. Also on Rev. Al Sharpton playing the race card, I'm not buying that either since 2 officers were white, 2 black & 1 was Hispanic. I think Rev. Al Sharpton isn't doing anyone a favor by making this a racial issue this early on in the investigation. What needs to happen is that a special prosecutor or a grand jury need to investigate this & people like Al Sharpton need to shut up & stop making absurd claims, just to further their own agenda. I’m sure if I was a police officer & a group of drunk men were about to ram into my vehicle after doing it twice, I would shoot as well. What would you expect the COP to do? Let the man continue ramming into him & possibly injure you? :rolleyes:

[Levi]

Here is an article about the shooting: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/25/national/main2208578.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_2208578

[Athena]

I am reserving judgement on this case right now. But so far it has been uncovered that Bell does not/was not drinking, and that the undercover officers never identified themselves. The local news reports are saying that the guys thought it was an attempted robbery and one of the police officers spurred the other shots from the other police officers by shouting one of them had a gun - no weapon has been found. The PO's were not in uniform (undercover) - at least 50 shots fired!

re: Al Sharpton - I don't think he has referred to it as a racial issue but as a police brutality issue. He is calling for a Special Prosecutor because he does not believe the police can investigate themselves.

Think whatever you will of Al Sharpton but unfortunately if it were not for activists like him stuff would be swept under the rug. JMO



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/474972p-399551c.html

[Levi]

It makes no diffrence if they identified themselves or not. He was ramming his car into their vehicle. What were they supposed to do? Let him keeping doing it? :rolleyes:

[Athena]

Originally posted by Levi
It makes no diffrence if they identified themselves or not. He was ramming his car into their vehicle. What were they supposed to do? Let him keeping doing it? :rolleyes:

Of course it makes a difference that they did not ID themselves; they are police officers. Obviously if they had Bell wouldn't have rammed the PO's unmarked cars.

You sit in your car and have 7 unknown men approach it with guns drawn. I would have rammed him too thinking my life was being threatened.

Good thing the media was there right away. I would bet the POs would have tried to plant a gun as well since they couldn't find one. Fifty shots? Give me a break. :rolleyes: backatcha. Was the rolling eyes bit really necessary?

[Levi]

It was reported Sun night on "The Line Up" on Fox News. That the victim rammed into the under cover police officers vehicles, before they shot & before they drew their guns. How are they supposed to identify themselves when some punk is ramming into their vehicles? :rolleyes:

[Athena]

The same facts and statements suggest the three young men in the car who repeatedly tried to crash past an unmarked police van did so in their own mistaken and panicked belief they were in mortal danger. One was climbing into the back of the car when he saw a tall figure in street attire approach in the early morning darkness.

"Yo, my man, come here, my man, let me holler at you," the figure was heard to call out.

The tall figure was holding something black by his side.

"He's got a gat! He's got a gat! Be out! Be out!" the young man climbing into the car shouted.

The figure was an undercover cop, but by one witness account neither he nor his comrades announced themselves as police officers until after Sean Bell tried in vain to drive away and six to 10 shots were fired.

"That's when somebody started shouting, 'Police! Police! Put your hands out! Put your hands out!'" recalls witness China Flores.

The shooting only intensified.

"That's when all hell broke loose," Flores says.

One cop fired 31 times, but regardless of how he is ultimately judged by the law, a harsher public judgment should be reserved for the senior commander at the scene. This lieutenant is said to have been so certain he was being fired upon he ducked under the dashboard of his undercover vehicle while the cops he was supposed to supervise fired a total of 50 rounds.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/474965p-399546c.html

[AmyW]

Why did the officers start firing just because they were trying to get around them? Couldn't they have just shot out the tires rather than load the car with bullets? If the people inside the car weren't shooting first, I don't see why so many officers couldn't have shot out the tires.

:shrug: :confused:

[torch1974]

This is even worse than the Deondre Brunston shooting. The families involved here have a very good case for wrongful death. The Brunston family received $340,000 in compensation. I hope NYPD have been saving up, I imagine this is going to cost them a lot more.

[jamminj67]

Why did the officers start firing just because they were trying to get around them? Couldn't they have just shot out the tires rather than load the car with bullets? If the people inside the car weren't shooting first, I don't see why so many officers couldn't have shot out the tires.

:shrug: :confused:

According to some articles the men were in or outside (forget which) the strip club when they got in an altercation and one of the undercovers heard one of the men in the party they shot up mention getting a gun out of the car. So to the officers involved in the shooting, it (the shooting) was justified.

[torch1974]

jamminj67,

So if what you say is true then getting in an argument with a undercover cop is a death sentence?:no: Remember, 50 rounds were fired from 5 officers.:flamemad: Oh, one more thing, he was unarmed. But hey, that's America for ya.