Well I was skimming through AOL news today and came across the story of a young man who was shot by the police on his wedding day.
Now it seems this is becoming a big civil rights issue since the man was black and the officers were white....
Tell me your thoughts....
Heres the story.
The gatherers Sunday outside Mary Immaculate Hospital also prayed over the Saturday morning incident, which also left two men wounded, and elected officials and community leaders promised to hold police accountable.
Family members and activists are demanding answers from the police about what happened, especially why officers fired as many as 50 rounds at the unarmed group as they left Bell's bachelor party in a car.
"We cannot allow this to continue to happen," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been speaking for Bell's family. "We've got to understand that all of us were in that car."
The civil rights advocate led the sometimes heated crowd in chants of "No justice, no peace." At times some in the crowd of a few hundred yelled that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly should be ousted. And at one point, they counted off to 50, the number of rounds fired.
The surviving victims were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. The shootings occurred outside the Kalua Cabaret, a strip club where the bachelor party was held. Both men are at Mary Immaculate Hospital, where Guzman is in critical condition and Benefield listed as stable.
Relatives of all three men -- many of them stoic, and some crying -- attended Sunday's vigil but none spoke.
During a press conference Saturday evening, Kelly said the department was still piecing together what happened, and that it was too early to say whether the shooting was justified.
The officers' shots struck the men's car 21 times after the vehicle rammed into an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan. The wild gunfire hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no residents were injured.
Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun. But investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Kelly said.
Kelly said the incident stemmed from an undercover operation inside the strip club in the Jamaica section of Queens. Seven officers in plain clothes were investigating the Kalua Cabaret; five of them were involved in the shooting.
According to Kelly, the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club after 4 a.m. One of his friends made a reference to a gun.
An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, they drove forward -- striking him and a nearby undercover police vehicle.
The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. That officer had served on the force for five years. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.
It was the first time any of the officers, who all carried 9 mm handguns, had been involved in a shooting, Kelly said.
At some point, Bell, who was driving, backed his car up onto the sidewalk, hitting a building gate. He then drove forward, striking the police vehicle a second time, Kelly said.
It was unclear whether the shooters had identified themselves as police, Kelly said.
Kelly's account of the events was based on statements made by witnesses and the two officers who did not shoot their weapons. Police could not question the other officers because the district attorney must first complete an investigation, Kelly said.
Guzman was in the front passenger's seat, while Benefield was in the back seat. Kelly said there may have been a fourth person in the car who fled the scene.
Three officers, including the officer hit by the car, were treated and released. Another detective remained hospitalized Sunday for hypertension.
Kelly said undercover officers were inside the club to document illicit activity. With one more violation the club would be shut down, Kelly said.
He said the establishment, next to an auto-body repair shop on a gritty block across from a Long Island Rail Road station, had a "chronic history of narcotics, prostitution and weapons complaints" and had been closed by authorities for three months last year.
On Sunday, the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said it is issuing a vote of no confidence in Kelly over the shooting. It is also calling for the removal of the chief of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, Anthony Izzo, who it says created the undercover unit involved in the incident.
Additionally, the group wants a re-examination of what it says is a policy that allows officers from the organized crime control unit to consume alcohol on the job. "Who knows whether or not that was a factor in this particular shooting?" said Marq Claxton, a retired police detective and one of the founders of the group.
A police spokeswoman on Sunday did not immediately offer comment on the group's demands.
Sharpton on Sunday repeatedly said that the police's story didn't make sense. Community leaders are planning a rally at police headquarters for Dec. 6. "We are not going to stop. This is the beginning," Sharpton said.
This isn't the first time the NYPD has come under scrutiny over police-involved shootings.
In 1999, police killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the Bronx. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges.
And in 2003, Ousmane Zongo was shot to death during a police raid. The 43-year-old, a native of the western African country of Burkina Faso, repaired art and musical instruments in Manhattan. He was hit four times, twice in the back.
Bell and his fiancee were the parents of two children, a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old.
At the end of the vigil Sunday, relatives of Bell led the crowd in a walk around the hospital block.
Now is this really a civil rights issue? Were the officers justified? I want all of your thoughts in a comment.....