Medical Examiner Testifies During Sean Bell Trial
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Four bullets ripped through Sean Bell’s body during the 50-bullet police shooting that killed the 23-year-old groom hours before he was to be married, a medical examiner testified at the trial of the three detectives charged in the shooting.
One bullet pierced the right side of Bell’s neck, tearing through his vocal cords and impairing his ability to call for help, Dr. Michael Greenberg testified.
Dr. Greenberg said the wound would have it made it impossible for Bell to utter any meaningful sounds.
A second bullet entered Bell’s right shoulder and stopped at the wall of his chest, Dr Greenberg, who works for the city’s Office of the Medical Examiner, testified.
A third bullet pierced the back of Bell’s torso and ripped through his liver, diaphragm and a lung before lodging in his spine, Dr. Greenberg said. “Fatal in and of itself,” Dr. Greenberg said of that bullet.
The fourth bullet shattered a bone in Bell’s right arm, Dr. Greenberg said.
During the medical examiner’s detailed testimony, Bell’s parents, Valerie and William, abruptly left the Queens courtroom where the trial has been under way for a month. Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, sat through the doctor’s testimony.
Bell, a father of two, was killed during the early morning hours of November 25, 2006 as he sat in a car with two friends. The car was parked near a Queens strip club where Bell had held his bachelor party.
Prosecutors contend the three men were victims of overly aggressive and reckless detectives who opened fire without identifying themselves as police.
The defense argues the detectives opened fire on Bell’s car after he rammed into undercover Detective Gescard Isnora and because they believed one of Bell’s friends was going to get a gun after a quarrel between Bell and another man.
Bell and his companions men were unarmed.
Detectives Isnora and Michael Oliver have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter; Detective Marc Cooper has pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment.
On Monday, grand jury testimony by Detective Oliver from last year was read for the judge who is hearing the case.
In the testimony, Detective Oliver said he was scared for his life and that he thought the officers were under fire.
