NEW YORK, Nov 27: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg planned to meet his police commissioner and Queens borough community leaders in a bid to defuse mounting anger over the shooting death of an apparently unarmed black bridegroom by five cops.
Sean Bell, 23, was killed hours before his wedding early Saturday after a bachelor party, as he was leaving a Queens nightclub that was being staked out by police.
In unclear circumstances still under investigation, 50 shots were fired by five undercover police officers at the group of revellers. When the smoke cleared, Bell was dead and two of his friends were wounded, one of them critically.
Press reports said the first police officer opened fire believing the group was armed, inciting his colleagues to do the same. Preliminary findings, however, indicate the three victims had no weapons.
The shooting touched off a demonstration on Sunday by hundreds people in Queens angry at what they see is a repetition of the 1999 death in Bronx of African immigrant Amadou Diallo, shot 41 times by cops who thought he was reaching for a gun and not his wallet.—AFP
