Sean Bell: Grand Jury Indicts Three

None of the police officers have previously stated that anyone had fired a gun at them so this so-called “witness’s� statement can be dismissed as something concocted by the police. We also know that the undercover officers didn’t even know how many times they had fired at Bell until after tests were conducted after the killing.

ON THE SPOT

Rejecting the New York Police Department’s last-minute dirty tricks, The Grand Jury in Queens County has indicted three of the five New York police officers who fired 50 bullets into the car of an unarmed Black man, killing him on his wedding day, The Black Star News has learned.
 
The jurors’ decision won’t be officially announced until Monday by Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, The Black Star News has learned.

Separately, there will be a “Rally For Justice for Sean Bell” at Manhattan’s Union Square tomorrow at noon, activists announced.

The Grand Jury deliberations had been thrown into confusion when the Police Thursday produced a mysterious eye “witness� after the jurors had deliberated for five hours.

Mayor Bloomberg has ordered extra police officers on alert. “Whatever the grand jury says—I think you will see the people of this city behaving in an exemplary manner,” Bloomberg said today. “They can be disappointed, they can express themselves — that’s freedom of speech, I don’t have a problem with that. But nobody is going to go out and make our streets unsafe.”

New Yorkers had been on edge waiting for the outcome. The five police officers killed Bell execution-style November 25, as he was trying to drive away after a night of partying, to celebrate his wedding which was to occur later that day.

Four of the five undercover officers who discharged their firearm into the vehicle occupied by the three unarmed Black males testified before the Grand jury.  As readers recall, in addition to killing Bell on his wedding day, the police left Bell’s friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Bennifield seriously injured. Michael Oliver, the Detective who fired his weapon 31 times had been last to testify. 

The so-called mysterious “witness� was quickly dismissed by many analysts and apparently by Grand jurors, as a police “dirty tricks� scheme. He had supposedly been interviewed earlier by police shortly after the shooting. This week, for the first time ever, he claimed to have seen a fourth individual, who was not in the car in which Bell was killed, firing at police on that fateful night, and then fleeing from the scene.

All we know is the following: The undercover-cops involved in the killing of Bell had consumed two or more drinks, which contained alcohol, the night of the shooting.  We know there was no alcohol test of these cops’ blood level. We know no gun was found inside Sean Bell’s car.  We know there was no radio transmissions describing a fourth man, particularly one holding a gun, running from the scene.

None of the police officers had previously stated that anyone had fired a gun at them so this so-called “witness’s� statement can be dismissed as something concocted by the police. We also know that the undercover officers didn’t even know how many times they had fired at Bell until after tests were conducted after the killing.


Columnist note: If you tuned in to Black talk radio WLIB 1190 AM with Imhotep Gary Byrd’s, “Mind flight,� which once aired Monday thru Thursday mornings from 12:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M., and are like most of us – ‘tired of being dumbed-down because of a lack of news and information in your community and around the city.’  Tell WLIB management, “I want to listen to the old Black talk radio program listed above.  One day is a disservice to our communities,� contact: Deon Levingston, Vice President and General Manager, WLIB Radio, 3 Park Avenue, New York New York 10016; telephone – 212-592-0426.  Send me your response and any reply and I will print it in this column.  Let’s stay informed.


Watch Manhattan cable channel 34 or
www.mnn.org channel 34 every Sunday at 7:30 P.M. for news updates and other articles.  You have any comments contact Winkfield for his consideration regarding covering your own story.  Email: [email protected] or [email protected]; call (212) 481-7745.  Write to: On The Spot, Post Office Box 230149, Queens County 11423.  Together we can get the justice everyone just talks about.

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