50 Shots - Few Answers

The circumstances surrounding the horrific police shooting at 4 a.m. outside a Jamaica strip club that claimed the life of Sean Bell, 23, a groom-to-be on his wedding day and resulted in the wounding of two of his friends following a bachelor party remain sketchy and muddled.
Fact: Five police officers fired 50 shots into a moving car, homes, and a train station.
Fact: The bride to be, Nicole Paultre, the mother of Bell's two daughters, was left to bury her husband-to-be.
Fact: Five cops who went to work that day undercover and in plainclothes are facing potential criminal charges.
Fact: Two of the officers are white, two are black and one is Hispanic.
Fact: There was an altercation in the street outside the strip club and the young men attempting to drive away rammed an unmarked police van.
Fact: An undercover cop fired the first shot, following with 10 more rounds.
Fact: A white plainclothes detective who was in the rammed van fired 31 shots. He fired 16 times - then reloaded and fired 15 more rounds.
Fact: The second officer in the van fired three times.
Fact: Two officers riding with a lieutenant overseeing the surveillance operation got out of their Camry and one 17-year veteran fired four times, the other cop with nine-years on the force fired once.
Fact: Friends and family of Bell and his companions, Joseph Guzman, 31 and Trent Benefield, 23, are justifiably outraged, angry and deserving of answers.
Fact: The Kalua Cabaret on 94th Avenue in Jamaica was under investigation for drugs and prostitution activities prior to the fateful events.
The rest of the facts in this case will be determined by a Queens grand jury and investigations by the police department and the Queens District Attorney's office. The public, while outraged and furious, must remain calm and wait for answers from the facts that will emerge.
The seemingly black and white nature of shootings involving the police often change to shades of gray when all the facts are uncovered and proved out.
&#8220We've got to understand that all of us were in that car,” Reverend Al Sharpton pointed out to some 300 demonstrators gathered outside Mary Immaculate Hospital where Guzman was in critical condition and Benefield was in stable condition.
Justice will be served - justice will be done!
We must put our faith in the system.
We must ask the hard questions, but we must not prejudge this case. It must run its course in the public arena and under the scrutiny of the press and the public at large.
We cannot allow the actions of a few cops to sully the reputations and badges of the thousands of police officers who protect us day in and day out.
The truth will be told!