Manhattan Strip Clubs: Cops in Sean Bell Shooting Won’t Face Federal Civil Rights Charges
The apparent decision not to charge the three detectives in this case is thus not surprising, but it is nonetheless disappointing for the family who lost the 23-year-old Bell to a hail of 50 police bullets just hours before he was supposed to walk down the aisle with fiancée Nicole Paultre-Bell.
“They said they were limited by statutes and evidence,” a distraught William Bell, Sean’s father, told the Daily News after he met with prosecutors. “I’m not a lawyer, what can I say. My son’s dead, and they can’t do anything about it. He can’t even rest in peace.”
The Nov. 25. 2006, shooting sparked massive outcry across the nation, with civil-rights advocates leading protests and demanding what they perceived to be just convictions for the detectives who shot and killed Bell. Bell had been outside a strip club with two friends after his bachelor’s party when undercover cops investigating reports of prostitution at the club apparently misheard their conversation and thought one had a gun.
See the full article from “NBC New York”