ISNORA
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The cop who touched off the 50-shot barrage that killed unarmed groom-to-be Sean Bell was found guilty of violating department guidelines by panicking and blowing his cover when he opened fire on a Queens street, officials said yesterday.
Five years and four days after Bell, 23, was gunned down behind the wheel of his car on his wedding day, an administrative judge became the first official with any authority to say someone involved in the deadly shooting had done something wrong.
Detective Gescard Isnora, who blew his cover to confront Bell and his buddies outside a Jamaica strip club, had already been acquitted of any criminal charges for his role in sparking the melee in which four officers shot 50 bullets at a car carrying three unarmed men in the middle of the night.
The ruling from Judge Martin Karopkin clears the way for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to fire Isnora, who has been on restricted duty since the shooting.
The cop had testified 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 saw Guzman’s arm go up. Isnora testified that he never actually saw a gun.
Isnora was found guilty of firing outside the guidelines and coming out of his undercover role, according to Tuesday night’s verdict.
A department spokesman, Paul Browne, said a decision on Isnora’s future had not been made.
The ruling brought a small measure of relief to Bell’s family, who commemorated the fifth-year anniversary of his Nov. 25 death with a candlelight vigil last week on the stretch of Liverpool Street where Bell died, a block that has been renamed in his honor.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Nicole Paultre-Bell, the victim’s fiancée and mother of his two daughters, tweeted yesterday after news of the judge’s ruling spread.
“It’s a relief that one of them could lose their jobs,” Bell’s father, William, said. “But to me, it’s not a punishment. I lost my son. There’s no justice. There’s no way around that.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a family adviser, said the ruling vindicates Bell’s supporters.
“It also mandates that the police commissioner immediately fires Detective Isnora and not give retirement benefits to the others who were involved,” Sharpton said in a statement.
Isnora’s lawyer, Philip Karasyk, declined to comment.
Officer Michael Carey, who testified that he opened fire after he heard Isnora yell “Gun,” was acquitted of all charges, officials said.
Detective Endowment Association president Michael Paladino said he was disappointed with the Isnora ruling.
“I disagree with the trial commissioner’s verdict,” Paladino said.
Additional reporting by Doug Auer and Lorena Mongelli