Sean Bell and Nicole Paultry

Three New York City cops have been acquitted of killing Sean Bell on what would have been his wedding day. Detectives Gescard Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper put 50 bullets into Bell in the early hours of the morning outside of a Queens strip club called the Kalua Cabaret.

Bell had run into one of the cops with his car after the officer had told him to raise his hands. The detectives believed Bell and his friends were going back to their car to retrieve a gun to shoot some clubbers they had gotten into a dispute with.

Detectives Gescard Isnora, 29, and Michael Oliver, 36, faced up to 25 years behind bars for manslaughter charges, while Det. Marc Cooper, 40, faced a year in jail on reckless endangerment charges.

“Murderers! Murderers!” many in the crowd shouted as the officers exited the building. Others chanted “PBA, PBA, KKK! KKK!” while some circled in an orderly protest in front of the court house.

“We’re grateful that this court ruled on the evidence presented in this case, but in this case there are no winners or losers, we still have to live with a death.” Patrick J. Lynch, President of the New York City Police Officer’s Benevolent Association, said in a statement to the media outside the courthouse.

Bell’s fiancee Nicole Paultre stormed out of the court room upon hearing the verdict. Protests took place outside the Queens courtroom after the ruling by Judge Arthur Cooperman.

Shawn Bell