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Police step up inquiry into NYC death
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 2, 2006
NEW YORK - Officers have raided at least one home, picked up the son of a clergyman for an unpaid ticket and scoured vacant lots with an intensity akin to a manhunt in a murder case. But the search has nothing to do with a fugitive killer. Instead, police are trying to locate a key witness - and perhaps a missing gun - in hopes of explaining why five police officers unleashed a 50-shot barrage that killed a man on his wedding day outside a strip club last week. Police critics on Friday warned of a backlash: They claim the search has created a climate of fear in a community already outraged by the death of Sean Bell, 23, and the wounding of two other unarmed men who attended his bachelor party at the club. They say police have concocted a "phantom gunman" to show that officers were justified in opening fire. "This kind of police conduct is frightening, and it serves as a chilling impact on those witnesses who want to come forward and simply tell what they saw, what they heard, so that justice can be served," said Charlie King, an attorney who said he represents several potential witnesses. The shooting has sparked outrage in the city and brought cries of racism. Bell was black; two of the officers are black, two are white and one is Hispanic. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Friday that investigators have taken statements from witnesses that put a fourth man near the car at the time of the shooting.
[Last modified December 2, 2006, 01:18:31]
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