via:nypost.com
Federal authorities will not pursue charges against the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell, the unarmed bridegroom who died in a hail of police bullets outside a Queens strip club hours before his wedding, officials said yesterday.
Prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence” that Bell’s civil rights were violated when undercover officers unloaded on a car carrying Bell and two friends on a Jamaica street in November 2006.
Three of the five officers involved were tried and acquitted in 2008, including Michael Oliver, who police said reloaded while firing 31 of the 50 shots that filled the vehicle and surrounding
The other two cops were never indicted.
Bitterly disappointed, Bell’s parents and his fiancĂ©e, Nicole Paultre Bell, sought input from federal prosecutors, only to have their hopes dashed again.
“What kind of message are they sending kids?” said Bell’s father, William. “It’s open season. They can do whatever they want.”
Bell’s family met with officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, who delivered the news.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a family adviser, said he spoke directly with US Attorney General Eric Holder.
“I expressed to him my extreme disappointment in the decision, and our legal advisers saw the evidence and federal jurisdiction differently,” Sharpton said in a statement.
“We agreed, however, that the family and community must continue to bring a new day in how we deal with police matters and how both community residents and police are protected equally under the law.”
Bell, 23, and two friends,Benefield and Joseph Guzman, had piled into Bell’s car after leaving a bachelor party at a Jamaica strip club when they were confronted by a team of undercover cops who believed they were retrieving a gun to settle a score at the club. All three were wounded in the fusillade that killed Bell.
No gun was recovered.
Justice Department officials s Trent aid they conducted an independent investigation and reviewed witness statements, crime-scene evidence, ballistics reports, reconstruction analyses and medical reports.
“Prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a law-enforcement officer willfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids,” the department said in a statement.
“This is the highest standard of intent imposed by law, and is different and higher than the intent standard under the relevant state statutes.
“Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil-rights violation.”
NYPD officials had no comment on the development.
Now that the US Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, the NYPD can proceed with administrative procedures that could result in the officers’ termination.
The five cops remain on modified assignment and have been stripped of their guns and enforcement power.
Paultre Bell, who is raising the 7-year-old daughter she had with Bell, said the legal system has failed her again.
“This is not the first time we’ve been let down,” she said. “It’s just happening all over again. Everybody deserves justice, so of course I was disappointed. It was like a replay of what happened.”
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