We shall also be noting that, after the failure to find a "fourth gunman", a notion that arose simply because it was one of a few possibilities that could be spun into a defense of these officers, they are now looking for the other spinnable concept.
After Detective Isnora left the club to retrieve his weapon, badge and bullet-resistant vest to make the arrest, [he said] he saw a “loud argument” involving Mr. Bell, his friends and a woman who “told the group of men that she was not going to go to a hotel room with them, where they wanted to have sex with her.”
[He said] The driver of a black sport utility vehicle, who was standing with the woman, “directed unpleasant comments in the direction of Guzman and Bell,” prompting Mr. Guzman to say, “Get my gun, get my gun.”
At that point, the memorandum states, Detective Isnora was convinced that Mr. Bell and his friends “were intending to drive back to the Kalua Club, to do a drive-by shooting of the driver of the black S.U.V.”
Judge Refuses to Dismiss Charges in Bell Shooting
By ELLEN BARRY
A State Supreme Court judge in Queens refused yesterday to dismiss charges against three detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old man who died in a volley of police gunfire on his wedding day.
In his decision, Justice Arthur J. Cooperman rejected various arguments made by lawyers for the detectives, Michael Oliver, Gescard F. Isnora and Marc Cooper, who followed Mr. Bell to his car during an undercover operation at a topless bar in Jamaica, Queens. Justice Cooperman also refused to separate Detective Cooper’s trial on reckless endangerment charges from the cases of the two others, which involve far more serious charges.
The judge scheduled the trial for Jan. 7 yesterday. Outside the courthouse, friends and supporters of Mr. Bell complained that the trial was painfully slow in coming.
“We will be noting the first anniversary of this without having seen these men go before the courts and justice be ascertained,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has led a series of vigils and protests against the killing.
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