By Rich Bockmann
Baisley Pond Park and its baseball field played host Saturday to the fourth-annual Sean Bell Family Day, a time when the Jamaica community Bell called home gathered to remember and preserve his spirit through one of his life’s passions.
“[Sean] was a Little Leaguer and he was looking to be drafted by the Dodgers,” said Les Paultre, who would have watched his daughter, Nicole, marry Bell had he not been killed by NYPD officers hours before he was set to walk down the aisle Nov. 26, 2006.
In his memory, Bell’s friends and family established the Sean Bell Little League, and each year children — many too young to fully understand the significance of the day’s game — finish their season in the park.
“Every year is a remembrance of Sean — his dreams and his aspirations are passed on to these Little Leaguers. Maybe some of them will want to be Little Leaguers like he wanted to be,” Paultre said.
An undercover NYPD team was investigating alleged drug and prostitution operations at the Kalua Cabaret in Jamaica at the same time Bell and his entourage were celebrating his bachelor party when the officers thought they heard that one of Bell’s friends had a gun.
Bell was unarmed when he and two of his friends were shot a total of 50 times by the officers — three of whom were later acquitted of all charges in a bench trial in 2008.
His fiancée and mother to his two daughters, Nicole Paultre-Bell, has established a nonprofit that teaches people — especially young African-American men — their rights and responsibilities when stopped by the police.
Paultre-Bell insisted, however, that the day was an occasion to have a positive outlook, a chance to “turn tragedy into triumph.”
Earlier in the day, she participated in the fourth-annual Ride for Justice in which a caravan of 50 motorcycles and 10 cars took a tour of the significant places in Bell’s life.
Beginning from the park, they rode to the Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington, L.I., where Bell is buried, to the North Shore-LIJ Hospital in Forest Hills where he died.
From there they rode to John Adams High School, where he was a pitcher on its baseball team, to the street corner where he was killed, Sean Bell Way, before returning to the park.
Paultre-Bell said that in addition to the regular friends and family members, different faces show up each year to show their support.
“Every year gets a little better,” she said. “It shows how much he was loved and missed.”
William Bell Jr. said his brother loved baseball, and it was one of the things they shared with each other during his lifetime.
“Ever since he was little I grew up and taught him things,” he said, adding he would eventually like to see the Sean Bell Little League teams play against other leagues.
Eric Williams, 12, from Mount Vernon, N.Y., tossed the baseball around with teammates late in the afternoon as they prepared for their game.
The outfielder and first basemen knew the details of Bell’s life and said he would play hard during his game.
“It’s sad because he died,” he said.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
