The Sean Bell Verdict: A Judge Rules; A Family Mourns
When news first broke Friday morning that three New York police detectives were acquitted of gunning down Sean Bell, 23, outside a Jamaica Queens strip club, Kalua Cabaret, on November 25, 2006, just hours before his wedding to Nicole Paultre Bell, my mind immediately raced back to my time living in New York, when another gun tragedy prevented a wedding from taking place, only this tragedy didn’t involve police officers.
Gladys Ricart, 39, of North Bergen, N.J. and James L. Preston, 36, of Brooklyn N.Y., were to be married at the Church on the Hill in Flushing, Queens on September 26, 1999.
Only the bride-to-be, while posing for pictures with her bridesmaids dressed in what was described as ``light green and champagne dresses’’ in her N.J. home, met with an unexpected guest: her ex-boyfriend, Augustin Garcia, drove up to Ricart’s house at 825 Elizabeth Street, carrying a .38 caliber revolver, walked in the house and fired a spray of bullets, killing Ricart instantly, as a cloud of family and friends stood frozen in disbelief
While the bride’s brother held down the scorned lover, who had reportedly left 100 roses on Ricart’s front lawn just a week earlier, a flower girl, who began the day anticipating the experience of a lifetime, had to be whisked away from the pool of blood and mass confusion.
It was one of the most heart-wrenching stories I ever remember reading, and one I’ll never forget.
The other memorable shooting while living in New York, also took place in 1999. This one did involve police officers, and instantly caused a national commotion that’s still being talked about to this day.
The night of February 4, 1999, four officers showered Amadou Diallo, a 22 year-old Guinea immigrant with 41 bullets in front of his Bronx apartment. Like Mr. Bell, Diallo was unarmed. The officers claimed they mistook Diallo’s black wallet he was holding for a gun.
In April 2001, the four officers involved in the Diallo shooting were denied gun privileges and put on desk duty, while skirting criminal prosecution, when the Police Department’s Firearm Discharge Review Board ruled the officers were not in violation of department guidelines.
And though the detectives in the Bell shootings: Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Gescard Isnora, also avoided criminal prosecution, they still may be subject to possible disciplinary action from the department; and stripped of their gun privileges.
Before the Bell case is put to rest, we’ll undoubtedly hear from the court of public opinion whether the officer’s who killed the unarmed Queens resident, while badly injuring two others, were reckless and just plain trigger-happy, or were reacting to ``perceived criminal conduct'' as Justice Arthur J. Cooperman ruled, defending themselves in front of an assemblage of crack addicts, drug dealers, and convicted felons on a chilly November morning.
Only one part of the Bell case with its foggy facts is clear, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg so pointedly stated immediately after the verdict was announced:
"There are no winners in a trial like this. An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son.’’
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
Gladys Ricart, 39, of North Bergen, N.J. and James L. Preston, 36, of Brooklyn N.Y., were to be married at the Church on the Hill in Flushing, Queens on September 26, 1999.
Only the bride-to-be, while posing for pictures with her bridesmaids dressed in what was described as ``light green and champagne dresses’’ in her N.J. home, met with an unexpected guest: her ex-boyfriend, Augustin Garcia, drove up to Ricart’s house at 825 Elizabeth Street, carrying a .38 caliber revolver, walked in the house and fired a spray of bullets, killing Ricart instantly, as a cloud of family and friends stood frozen in disbelief
While the bride’s brother held down the scorned lover, who had reportedly left 100 roses on Ricart’s front lawn just a week earlier, a flower girl, who began the day anticipating the experience of a lifetime, had to be whisked away from the pool of blood and mass confusion.
It was one of the most heart-wrenching stories I ever remember reading, and one I’ll never forget.
The other memorable shooting while living in New York, also took place in 1999. This one did involve police officers, and instantly caused a national commotion that’s still being talked about to this day.
The night of February 4, 1999, four officers showered Amadou Diallo, a 22 year-old Guinea immigrant with 41 bullets in front of his Bronx apartment. Like Mr. Bell, Diallo was unarmed. The officers claimed they mistook Diallo’s black wallet he was holding for a gun.
In April 2001, the four officers involved in the Diallo shooting were denied gun privileges and put on desk duty, while skirting criminal prosecution, when the Police Department’s Firearm Discharge Review Board ruled the officers were not in violation of department guidelines.
And though the detectives in the Bell shootings: Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Gescard Isnora, also avoided criminal prosecution, they still may be subject to possible disciplinary action from the department; and stripped of their gun privileges.
Before the Bell case is put to rest, we’ll undoubtedly hear from the court of public opinion whether the officer’s who killed the unarmed Queens resident, while badly injuring two others, were reckless and just plain trigger-happy, or were reacting to ``perceived criminal conduct'' as Justice Arthur J. Cooperman ruled, defending themselves in front of an assemblage of crack addicts, drug dealers, and convicted felons on a chilly November morning.
Only one part of the Bell case with its foggy facts is clear, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg so pointedly stated immediately after the verdict was announced:
"There are no winners in a trial like this. An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son.’’
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
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