NEW YORK — Up to 1,000 police officers are poised to mobilize in case community unrest follows Friday’s verdict in the Sean Bell trial, police sources say.
The New York Police Department has organized crowd-control training for hundreds of officers and met with borough supervisors as part of preparations, a source said Wednesday.
Queens Justice Arthur Cooperman will announce his verdict in the trial of three police officers charged with killing Bell, 23, outside a Queens strip club in the early hours of Nov. 25, 2006.
Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper have been on trial since Feb. 25 for the shooting, in which two of Bell’s friends, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, were also wounded. They testified against the detectives.
Bell and his group had just left his bachelor party at the Club Kalua when the 50-shot encounter with police took place.
Wednesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has advocated on behalf of the Guzman and Benefield families, denounced the police preparations, calling suggestions that rioting might result from an acquittal insulting. “We never participated in or engaged in violence. Maybe you ought to ask people who believe it’s all right to shoot 50 times at unarmed men how they are going to react,” Sharpton said, responding to a query about the police preparation.
Sharpton spoke outside City Hall, where he was joined by Bell’s father, William Bell, and fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, as well as Benefield, Guzman and other supporters. “Nothing will ever bring Sean back, but hopefully I pray that if the right decision is made Friday, this will help any other family from suffering the way we have,” Paultre Bell said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said late Wednesday that he was not expecting violence. “I expect everybody in the city to act in an appropriate manner.”
