NEW YORK (AP) – A grand jury on Friday indicted at least three of the five officers in the 50-shoot barrage that killed an unarmed man on his wedding day, lawyers told The Associated Press.

The lawyers said Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver had been indicted, but they did not know the exact charges. Those three officers fired the most shots – Cooper, 4, Isnora, 11, and Oliver, 31.

“He has been indicted. He has been asked to surrender on Monday,” said Paul Martin, who represents officer Marc Cooper.

The lawyer for Gerscard Isnora, 28, also said his client was indicted. “He is very upset, but he is confident that once he has his day in court he will be vindicated,” Isnora attorney Philip Karasyk told the AP.

“I am disappointed my client was indicted. But it was not unexpected given the forum we are in,” said Oliver’s lawyer, James Culleton.

It was not immediately known if other officers were also charged.

The Reverend Al Sharpton said the charges marked an important first step in the fight for justice in the case.

“Since Nov. 25th, we have battled together. Today is a major step in that battle, whether it will be a step forward, time will tell. But one thing that we can say, if you stay together and you fight, you can do what is necesary to protect children,” the Reverend Sharpton said at a news conference.

The decision follows three days of grand jury deliberations that had the city on edge as New Yorkers anxiously awaited word on the fate of the officers. Extra police officers were put on standby and the mayor met with black leaders in the Queens neighborhood where shooting occurred in hopes of defusing any tensions that might arise from the decision.

The decision comes nearly four months after Sean Bell, 23, was shot and killed and two of his friends, Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31, were wounded in a shooting that led to angry protests and accusations of racism against the NYPD.

The case also brought back painful memories of other infamous police shootings in New York City, including the killing of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999. The officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges.

Police union officials defended the officers in the current case, arguing they were responding to reasonable suspicions the victims were armed and dangerous. The victims were black; three of the officers are black and two white.

Under state law, police can use deadly force if they have a “reasonable” belief that their lives or those of civilians are in immediate danger, even if that belief is mistaken.

“There was no criminality in their hearts, nor in their minds, when they took the actions they took,” Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said before the grand jurors’ decision was revealed.

The grand jurors had been instructed to consider several charges: second-degree murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide stemming from Bell’s death; and attempted murder, assault or reckless endangerment in the wounding of Messrs. Benefield and Guzman.

The deliberations were interrupted at one point after the emergence of a last-minute witness, whose story seemed to back up the officers’ claim that they were justified in opening fire. But the credibility of the witness was not known.

The five officers were among the more than 60 witnesses who testified before the grand jury. Messrs. Benefield and Guzman also gave their version, insisting the officers fired without warning.

“We didn’t even have a pair of scissors in the car,” Mr. Guzman said shortly after he was released from a hospital. “I don’t know what started this. We did nothing.”

The trouble began on Nov. 25, 2006 at the Kalua Cabaret, a topless bar that was the venue of Bell’s bachelor party. The club had a history of prostitution and drug complaints, making it a target that night for a roving undercover vice team.

Undercover officers went inside the club at about 1 a.m. to chat up dancers “for the purpose of arranging sex for payment,” a police report said. Though there was no evidence of prostitution that night, the officers observed “numerous minor disputes among the patrons and the dancers,” the report said.

At closing, the officers focused on one dispute involving Bell’s party and a man outside the club, possibly over a woman. Mr. Guzman, the report said, was overheard saying, “Yo. Get my gun. Get my gun.”

Mr. Isnora, a detective who had entered the club unarmed and undercover, retrieved his weapon and followed the three men on foot as they rounded a corner and headed toward their gray Nissan Altima parked on Liverpool Street. According to the police report, the undercover told a supervising police lieutenant in a cell phone call: “It’s getting hot on Liverpool, for real. I think there’s a gun.”

When Mr. Isnora approached the car driven by Bell, it lurched forward and bumped him, then twice rammed into an unmarked police minivan, police said. The undercover claimed through his lawyer that, after pulling out his badge and identifying himself as a police officer, he spotted one of the men make a suspicious move, prompting Isnora to squeeze off 11 rounds.

Before the vehicle came to a stop, Mr. Oliver fired 31 bullets, reloading once. Tests show that a bullet fired from his gun killed Bell, authorities said.

All were armed with 9mm semiautomatic pistols.

In the wake of the shooting, the New York Police Department commissioned the RAND Corp. to look for ways to reduce the risk of so-called “reflexive” or “contagious” shooting – the phenomenon of officers firing an excessive number of rounds in a chain reaction.

Many New Yorkers also could not avoid drawing comparisons between the Diallo shooting. Diallo was shot to death at the front door of his Bronx apartment building by four officers who said he fit the description of a rape suspect and they mistook his wallet for a gun. Diallo was hit by 19 of the 41 shots fired; the officers were acquitted of criminal charges in a 2000 trial, but Diallo’s mother got a $3 million settlement.

To some, the 41 shots in the Diallo case and the 50 shots in the Bell case became symbolic of excessive police force against black New Yorkers.

In the Bell case, Reverend Sharpton said the families were not seeking revenge. And should the officers be convicted of any charges, the victory would be hollow because the victims would still be wounded and Bell would still be dead, Sharpton said.

“We’re looking for it to not happen again. The only way you make sure it doesn’t happen again is you stop it, and you punish it and you send a signal that we live in a society where laws have to be respected. So there is no joy, no vengeance, no party here.”