What’s the story today, NYPD?
In the days after the incident in which a hail of some 50 bullets by the NYPD resulted in the death of Sean Bell and the wounding of two friends (all three were unarmed), “details” emerged. One story that was put out there was that police and witnesses had seen a fourth, possibly armed, man flee the scene. The story played so well that some used this as a rationale for why they felt the police acted accordingly. Of course, that author also employed the false logic of Bell and his friends having prior arrest records for gun possession, a fact unknown to the police at the time of the shooting. But, let’s move on.
It now appears that this story is not going to hold up because, in a preliminary report being issued by the department, there is no mention of a fourth person is made. This report is based on interviews with several police officers and witnesses on the scene that night.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the police department’s 23-page preliminary report of the shooting, a detailed look at what happened on Nov. 25 when Sean Bell, 23, and his two friends were caught in a barrage of 50 bullets after a bachelor party at a strip club in Queens. Bell’s friends were wounded; all three men were unarmed.
Police have suggested a fourth man may have had a gun and fled when the plainclothes officers opened fire, but the report made no mention of such a man, whom the surviving victims have said does not exist. Some in the community claim the officers invented the man to justify the shooting.
The report also contains no indication that police were searching after the shooting for a fourth man, the paper said.
The preliminary report includes summaries of interviews with Lt. Gary Napoli, who was supervising a team conducting an undercover operation at the strip club on the night of the shooting, two sergeants who responded after the gunfire began and 10 other officers, according to The Times. Also included are synopses of accounts by three civilian witnesses, including one of the victims, Trent Benefield.
Again, I ask, “what’s the story, now, NYPD?”
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