The cop who touched off the 50-shot barrage that killed unarmed groom Sean Bell on his wedding day should be fired from his job for panicking and blowing his cover, NYPD lawyers said today.
When Detective Gescard Isnora fired the first shot at a car carrying Sean Bell and his friends on a Queens street, he was acting recklessly and outside department guidelines, the lawyers said.
Officer Michael Carey, one of four officers who backed up Isnora in a the Nov. 2006 shooting outside a Queens nightclub should lose 30 vacation days, the special counsel prosecutors said.
“Every officer is responsible for every round fired from his weapon,” said special counsel Nancy Slater. “Detective Isnora exercised extremely poor judgment. But while his actions are not criminal in any way, his choices and actions show he should not be a member of the department.”
Isnora testified last week that he followed Bell and his friends from a Jamaica strip joint, Kalua Club, because he thought Bell’s pal Joseph Guzman was going to retrieve a gun.
Isnora said he opened fire after he was clipped by Bell’s car and say Guzman’s arm go up. Though he yelled “gun.” Isnora admitted that he never actually saw a weapon.
Testimony and evidence from the police department trial will be reviewed by a department judge, who will make a recommendation to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell, said she wants to see both officers fired.
“I think these officers have shown they can’t be trusted on the force,” Paultre-Bell said. “I don’t think that anyone would want to get stopped by one of these guys.”