Sean Bell Trial

On November 26, 2006 Sean Bell and two his friends were at a strip club called the Kalua Cabaret for his bachelor party in Jamaica, Queens. Seven undercover cops were in the club that night investigating a different crime when an argument between Bell’s friends and one of the strippers in the club broke out. As they left the club one of the officers allegedly overheard one of the men saying they were going to get a gun. The men left followed by five officers. When they were in the car officer told Bell to put his hands in the air but he never identified himself as police. Instead Bell hit the gas and crashed into a parked car. Then the police started firing. All together there were fifty shots fired. Detective Paul Headley fired one round, Officer Michael Carey fired three, Officer Marc Cooper fired four, Officer Gescard Isnora fired eleven, and Officer Michael Oliver fired thirty one times, pausing to reload, empting two magazines. Sean Bell was shot in the neck and torso four times, Joseph Guzman, who is thirty-one, was shot nineteen times and Trent Benefield, who is 23, was in the backseat and hit three times. Guzman and Benefield were taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital where they treated and released. Bell fattaly died.