NEW YORK—The verdict in a police brutality trial that has outraged New York's black community will come on Friday for three detectives over the killing of an unarmed black man in a hail of bullets on his wedding day.
Two officers are charged with manslaughter and a third with reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell, 23, after a bachelor party at a strip club in November 2006.
The detectives fired 50 shots, also wounding two of Bell's friends. While the officers said they believed the men were armed, none of the three victims had a weapon.
Police spokesman Paul Browne said the department does not anticipate any problems with Friday's verdict and noted that all demonstrations thus far have been peaceful.
Extra police have been at the courthouse since the start of the trial and more officers can be called in if needed, Browne said. Additional uniformed court officers will be stationed inside, court spokesman David Bookstaver said.
The case will be decided by a state Supreme Court judge because the officers waived their right to a jury trial, saying any jury in the borough of Queens would be biased due to intense media coverage.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, a critic of the police in the case who has accompanied Bell's parents and fiancee Nicole Paultre to court, said the guilt of the officers had been proven.
"There are those who say to us there should be calm and peace. But you're addressing that to the wrong people. We never participated, engaged in violence," Sharpton said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he does not expect violence "no matter what the decision is."
Protesters have called the case an example of police brutality toward blacks. One of the defendants is black, one is black Hispanic and the third is white.
The eight-week trial centered on whether the detectives had reason to believe they faced imminent danger and whether they made it clear to Bell and the two survivors, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, that they were police officers.
Gescard Isnora, the undercover officer who fired first, followed Bell and his two friends to Bell's car believing they were fetching a gun to settle a dispute at the club. He opened fire after being grazed by the car.
The other officers, Mike Oliver and Marc Cooper, reached Bell's car after the initial confrontation and said they believed Isnora was being fired at from inside the vehicle.
Assistant district attorney Charles Testagrossa accused the officers of "carelessness verging on incompetence" and said that once the shooting began they "never paused to reassess."
Defense lawyers countered that the officers were engaged in dangerous police work and lacked the benefit of hindsight.
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