Arrivals for the Opening
Day of the Trial of Three Undercover New York
City Police Officers Charged in the Shooting
Of Sean Bell
February 25, 2008
Written by Wendy R. Williams
Photographed by Angelo Rivera
Opposite
Photo: Officer Marc Cooper
The Sean Bell trial
has galvanized the community ever since Sean Bell
was killed in a barrage of fifty bullets as he
was leaving his bachelor party at a strip club
in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006. Two of Bell's friends,
Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded
but survived. New York Cool photographer Angelo
Rivera has been following the shooting and the
resulting indictments. Here is a link to his coverage
of a rally for the victims.
This trial is not
a black and white story. Two of the police officers
charged are African American. The facts will come
out in the trial but from what we know now, there
were two groups of young men hanging in a strip
club. One group was drinking and carousing (as
all good bachelor parties do) and the other group
was pretending to be drinking and carousing (as
all good undercovers in a strip club do). And
then there was an unspeakable tragedy and a young
man who was celebrating his upcoming wedding was
dead. And they are all so young. Looking at the
faces of the victims (in the link above) and the
young policemen (in this article) just breaks
my heart.
Officer Michael Oliver
Officer Gescard Isnora
Here are some links
to news coverage of the trial:
