“I didn’t want to die. I continued firing.”
That was Detective Michael Oliver’s reason for unleashing 31 bullets at Sean Bell and two friends – after another cop shouted that he saw someone with a gun.
Oliver said he saw one of his co-defendants, Detective Gescard Isnora, approach Bell’s Nissan Altima on Liverpool Street in Jamaica moments before cops unleashed a 50-shot barrage.
“I saw Detective Isnora with his arms out,” Oliver said in his grand jury testimony, which prosecutors revealed for the first time this afternoon and read into evidence in Queens Supreme Court.
“I heard Isnora yelling, ‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’ ”
Oliver – who then jumped out of an unmarked police van struck twice by Bell’s car – started firing his 9mm Sig Sauer handgun at Bell’s buddy, Joseph Guzman, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.
“I saw the passenger window get blown out,” Oliver recalled. “I see the passenger again.Ñ.Ñ. I continued to fire at [Guzman] because I didn’t want [Guzman] to raise his arm and shoot me.”
Oliver and Isnora are charged with manslaughter and reckless endangerment. Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment.
Bell, 23, was struck by four bullets and killed on Nov. 25, 2006 at about 4:15 a.m., hours before he was expected to be married.
An autopsy revealed it was a bullet from Oliver’s gun that killed him. Guzman and another man, Trent Benefield, were badly wounded, but survived.
Cops were outside Club Kalua, a seedy strip joint where Bell had held his bachelor party, conducting an undercover sting operation.
Oliver, 36, a 14-year NYPD veteran, admitted he never saw anyone pointing a gun at him or other cops.
Oliver, who was standing about 10 feet away from Bell’s car, also said that he heard gunfire, but “didn’t know where [the bullets] were coming from.”
Although he did not hear any of the other officers identify themselves as cops, Oliver said he yelled, “Police! Don’t move! Police! Don’t move!” before he started shooting.
Several witnesses have testified that the cops never identified themselves before firing their guns.
But Oliver – who fired nearly three times more bullets than anyone else that night – emptied his gun, took out another clip, reloaded and continued to fire at the vehicle.
“I kept firing at [Guzman]. I really had no more bullets,” said Oliver.
At one point, Oliver said he even had time to move around “to get a better line of fire.”
Oliver said he “believed [Guzman] had just shot at Detective Isnora.”
Isnora, who had been struck in the shin by Bell’s car, squeezed off 11 bullets.
Oliver said he changed his target away from Guzman and pointed his gun at Benefield’s direction after he thought bullets were coming from the back seat where he was sitting.
“I though he was shooting.Ñ.Ñ. at members of my team,” he said.
Oliver said he “couldn’t make out descriptions” of anyone in Bells’ car, saying he had been told by Lt. Gary Napoli, who was sitting in a nearby Toyota Camry, that officers were closing in on a club patron wearing a White Six cap who they believed had a gun.
When prosecutors, who have described the sting as a bungled operation, asked whether he was shooting to kill, Oliver replied, “I didn’t want to die. I continued firing.”
But Oliver also blamed the fusillade on police training, saying cops are told “to keep shooting until you eliminate the threat.Ñ.Ñ. Unfortunately, as a result, some people die.”
Then, displaying a hint of remorse, Oliver said killing Bell “was the last thing I wanted to do.”
Although no gun was ever recovered, the defense has said Bell and his friends were going to their parked car to get a firearm in order to settle a dispute that was brewing outside the club.