Bell Case From First Shot To Indictments

It was around 4 a.m. on Saturday, November 25, 2006 when Sean Bell wrapped up his bachelor party at a Jamaica strip club just hours before he would exchange wedding vows with his high school sweetheart and mother of his two children.
What the 23-year-old Far Rockaway resident and accomplished high school baseball player could not have known when he left the Kalua Cabaret, located at 143-08 94th Avenue, was that instead of celebrating his last few moments as a single man, he had just been celebrating the last few moments of his life.
While Bell and his friends were enjoying the party, the New York Police Department (NYPD) was conducting a sting at the club, at which there had been reports of prostitution, drugs and weapons violations.
The sequence of events that followed is unclear but culminated in undercover detective Gescard F. Isnora observing a group of eight men including Bell and his two friends, Trent Benefield, 23 and Joseph Guzman, 31, leave the club and begin arguing with another man outside.
Guzman was allegedly overheard by Isnora as saying, “Yo, get my gun,” leading the detective to believe he was armed.
The police said that the men split into two groups of four. Bell, Benefield, Guzman, and an alleged fourth person got into Bell’s silver Nissan Altima parked on Liverpool Street, but following the shooting, evidence of a fourth person never surfaced.
Isnora, who had been following Bell’s group on foot, said that when he saw Guzman reach toward his waistband, he thought the man was reaching for a gun. It was at that point that Isnora alleges he pulled out his police shield and gun and identified himself as an officer.
Isnora fired the first round in the subsequent storm of bullets that followed when Bell drove toward him, clipping the detective in the leg before striking a minivan carrying Detective Michael Oliver, 35 and Police Officer Michael Carey, 26. Isnora has said he began shooting because he believed his life was in imminent danger as Bell next reversed his car to jump the sidewalk before switching gears and hitting the minivan again.
Oliver and Carey fired on the Altima after Isnora started shooting and were joined by Detectives Marc Cooper, 39, and Paul Headley, 35, who were nearby in an unmarked car.
Benefield and Guzman have said that Isnora did not identify himself before he began shooting and that they believed they were being carjacked. They said that Bell, after seeing the gun, panicked and was trying to drive away from the scene as events unfolded.
By the time the shooting spree ended, police had fired 50 rounds at the three men. Bell was shot four times in the right arm and neck. The shot to his neck perforated his larynx, while another bullet perforated his liver and right lung - both rounds caused mortal wounds.
Bell was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.
Guzman was struck 11 times and had 17 wounds. Following the shooting, he was listed in critical condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital.
Benefield, who was shot three times in the legs and buttock, was listed in stable condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital.
At La Bella Vita catering hall in Ozone Park where a reception for 200 was to have taken place, owner Tony Modica instead relayed the terrible news to guests who called seeking directions to the wedding.

Sunday, November 26