Mapping out the path of the 50 bullets cops fired at Sean Bell and his friends is impossible because NYPD investigators did a sloppy job of accurately measuring the trajectory of the shots, a crime scene detective testified today.
Det. Michael Cunningham was grilled by lawyers defending Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Copper about the conclusions reached by the Crime Scene Unit cops surrounding the path of three particular bullets.
One shattered a window at the AirTrain Station in Jamaica. Another struck a lamp inside an apartment. And a third hit a fence.
They were all fired at Bell’s Nissan Altima by undercover cops outside a Queens strip club on Liverpool Street in Jamaica during the predawn hours of Nov. 25, 2006.
Cunningham, an expert on trajectory analysis, only surveyed the shooting scene in June 2007 – seven months after Bell was killed – and based his findings on the work of other CSU cops, he testified in Queens Supreme Court.
In one instance, Cunningham said he tried to measure the trajectory of the bullet fired into the AirTrain by Cooper – but had a tough time working off the measurements supplied to him by Det. Greg Anzalone, another crime-scene investigator.
“It wasn’t clear to me … where the bullet hole was,” said Cunningham.
By then, the shattered window had been replaced.
In another instance, Cunningham’s trajectory analysis was hampered because Liverpool Street had been repaved.
Oliver, who fired 31 shots, and Gescard Isnora, who squeezed off 11 bullets, are charged with manslaughter.
Cooper, who fired four times, is charged with reckless endangerment.
Although the prosecution used Cunningham to strengthen their case that detectives acted recklessly, the defense portrayed the CSU detectives’ work as shoddy.
Cunningham said his findings were “the best I could achieve” given the circumstances.
Outside court, a group of former cops accused the NYPD of “incompetence” in order to get the cops off.
Graham Weatherspoon, a spokesman for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, said Cunningham was “very proficient” at his job, but was called in too late.
“We have seen the ball dropped in a number of instances,” he said.
The defense has said Bell was drunk – his autopsy showed his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit – after he left his bachelor party at Club Kalua, a seedy strip joint where he held his bachelor party, just hours before he was to be married.
Undercover cops were at the club conducting a sting operation.
Isnora told a grand jury he thought Bell’s friend, Joseph Guzman, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was reaching for a gun.
No gun was ever found at the scene or in Bell’s car.
The trial enters its sixth week on Monday with Guzman, who suffered 19 bullet wounds, expected to testify about the events that led to the shooting.