The police commissioner yesterday fended off accusations that his department engages in racial profiling, a practice Raymond Kelly’s critics said played into the November shooting of Sean Bell.

Mr. Kelly, one of Mayor Bloomberg’s most powerful commissioners, came under harsh fire during a City Council hearing, where several council members demanded that police department practices be changed.

“It’s hard to refute the reality of that time and time again, that the person being shot is a black man,” Council Member John Liu of Queens said. “It’s important for all of us to face that.”

Mr. Kelly — in his first appearance before the council since Bell was killed in a hail of 50 shots fired by undercover police officers on the night before he was to be married — said his police force acts without bias.

“We strongly contest any assertion that the department engages in racial profiling,” he said in prepared testimony to the committee during his three-and-a-half-hour appearance. “Officers are stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime, based on descriptions and circumstances, and not on personal bias.”

While he said the issue was worth looking into, Mr. Kelly, who has long publicly denounced the practice of racial profiling, contended that perceptions were out of line with reality.

He also noted that the police force is more ethnically diverse than the general population of the city. He said the uniformed force is 56% white, 17% black, and 24% Hispanic — compared with a general population that is 65% white, 14% black, and 19% Hispanic. Two of the officers involved in the Bell shooting are black.

Meanwhile, Joseph Guzman, who was with Bell and was shot 16 times, was released from the hospital yesterday. Speaking on the Reverend Al Sharpton’s radio show later in the day, Mr. Guzman described the actions of police officers that night as “murder.”

Mr. Guzman, who was in a wheelchair and wearing a sweatshirt with Bell’s name on it, also reiterated previous statements that he did believe the incident was racially motivated.

“I don’t think this was racial, but I do think a crime was committed,” he said.

He added that he and his friends thought they were being robbed when the undercover officers first approached.

Also yesterday, a grand jury in Queens met for a third day. Mr. Guzman’s attorney, Michael Hardy, said it was unclear when his client would testify.

Mr. Kelly declined comment on the Bell case, saying it was still under investigation. He told council members that the department would commence an external review of firearms training practices. The RAND Corporation has been hired to conduct that review.

Mr. Kelly’s position on racial profiling seemed to distress many council members, occasionally producing edgy exchanges.

“This is real. So when you say that this is not racially motivated … it doesn’t matter because you’re not the person being racially profiled,” Council Member Helen Foster said.

A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stuart Loeser, said the mayor has “always said that Ray Kelly is the greatest police commissioner that this city has ever had and he hasn’t backed away from that conviction one inch.”