Prometheus 6

“The cop that fired 31 shots, he faces having to show that his actions under the circumstances were reasonable. The number of bullets does not denote whether it was reasonable or not.”

vs.

It is known in police parlance as “contagious shooting” — gunfire that spreads among officers who believe that they, or their colleagues, are facing a threat. It spreads like germs, like laughter, or fear. An officer fires, so his colleagues do, too....

Just what happened on Saturday is still being investigated. Police experts, however, suggested in interviews yesterday that contagious shooting played a role in a fatal police shooting in Queens Saturday morning.

You know, if everyone had a rule requiring the prosecution to wait a couple of days before even talking to them, very few people would actually be in jail.

In Trial Over Police Killing in Queens, Focus May Be on First 2 of 50 Bullets
By MICHAEL WILSON

It has become widely known as the “50-shot” case, but as the trial of the detectives accused in the killing of Sean Bell approaches on Monday, the defense is expected to concentrate in particular on 2 of those 50 bullets: the first one fired by each of the two detectives who are charged with manslaughter.

If the two detectives can prove that they were not acting recklessly or with criminal intent in firing their first shots at Mr. Bell and his friends in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006, then the shots that followed — 40 more rounds between them — could be determined to be justified as well, said lawyers who have represented police officers in the past and people who have been briefed on the case. A third detective faces two misdemeanor charges.

Two details of the case are likely to be brought to bear on the question of justification. Mr. Bell, who was driving the car that drew the fire of the officers, had been drinking that night (an autopsy found that his blood alcohol level was well above the legal limit for driving, according to people briefed on the results). The car struck one of the detectives and then crashed into an unmarked van carrying other officers, the police said.

In addition, one of the men wounded along with Mr. Bell that night has testified before a grand jury that there was talk of someone having a gun outside the nightclub where they had gone to Mr. Bell’s bachelor party, according to the people briefed on the case. The testimony — the first known account by someone other than a police official to establish that there was talk of a gun that night — could possibly bolster the claim by the officers that they had reason to fear for their lives.

Lawyers representing the men with Mr. Bell that night have played down the significance of Mr. Bell’s drinking, and said the only mention of a gun had to do with someone who was not in Mr. Bell’s party.

Mr. Bell, 23, was killed on what was to have been his wedding day, after he and his friends celebrated at Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens.