Three NYC Cops Indicted For Killing Unarmed Sean Bell / Fifty Rounds In The Groom

NYC grand jury indicts three officers

NEW YORK --Two police officers involved in a 50-bullet barrage that killed an unarmed man on his wedding day were indicted on charges of manslaughter, and a third faces a misdemeanor charge, a person familiar with the investigation said Saturday.
The officers were indicted Friday by a grand jury that had deliberated for three days over whether to bring charges in the death of Sean Bell, who was shot while leaving a bachelor party last November

3 Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens

A grand jury voted yesterday to indict three city police detectives — two black men and a white man — in the killing of an unarmed 23-year-old black man who died in a burst of 50 police bullets outside a Queens strip club hours before he was to be wed last year, defense lawyers and police union leaders said last night.

"Bulls" Eye

Here's a look at every bullet fired last year by New York City cops, as reported in the police department's 1993 Firearms Discharge Assault Report:

TARGETS - SHOTS FIRED - HITS

At perpetrators - 928 - 173

At dogs - 155 - 111

Accidental discharges - 43 - 17

To protect other officer - 18 - 10

Police officer intoxicated - 10 - 0

Suicide - 8 - 8

Into locker - 6 - 0

At vehicle - 5 - 0

At girlfriend - 3 - 3

Attempting suicide - 3 - 2

Threatening suicide - 1 - 0

At wife - 1 - 1

At beer can - 1 - 0

Contagious Cop Shooting

Yesterday I wrote about Sean Bell, the 23 year old who was gunned down Saturday night in a hail of gunfire by New York cops, hours before his Sunday wedding.

Today's New York Times has another article on the shooting, with one officer suggesting the phenomenon of "contagious shooting" took over:

Cop-involved shootings steady, statistics show

Police shootings are not on the rise this year, despite perceptions following the fatal shooting of Sean Bell last month and two other police-involved incidents this week. However, the number of fatal police-involved shootings is up this year.

The actual number of cop shootings is about the same as it was last year, according to statistics from the NYPD obtained by amNewYork.