'Justice system let me down,' says fiancée of slain N.Y. groom
Last Updated: Saturday, April 26, 2008 | 6:26 PM ET
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The fiancée of a man shot and killed on his wedding day by three New York City police officers said Saturday that "the justice system let me down."
Sean's Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, speaks as Rev. Al Sharpton looks on Saturday. (Stephen Chernin/Associated Press) Nicole Paultre Bell spoke to a group of supporters in Harlem on Saturday, her first public comments since the three officers were acquitted Friday of the murder of her groom-to-be, Sean Bell.
"April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again. That's what it felt like to us," she said.
Paultre Bell, who officially changed her name after her fiancé's death to include his surname, said she hoped to seek another decision in the case.
"I'm still praying for justice because it's not over," she said.
Paultre Bell and Joseph Guzman, who was one of two men wounded in the 2006 shooting outside a Queens strip club, spoke at the headquarters of Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
"We've got a long fight," Guzman said. "We're still in it … We're going to struggle. We're going to get through."
Sharpton lambasted the judge who acquitted the detectives, saying the case should have been heard by a jury. Sharpton has threatened to "shut the city down" with organized civil disobedience.
Later in the day, 300 people marched about 20 blocks through Harlem to protest against the court decision. Fifty demonstrators carried white placards bearing numbers for the shots fired at Bell and his friends.
Sean Bell, 23, was killed outside the Kalua Cabaret strip club, where he had a last-minute bachelor party in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006. He was supposed to get married later that day.
Undercover police officers said that they overheard Bell and two other men saying they had a gun, and that they fired 50 bullets at the men. Two of Bell's friends were injured in the shooting.
The judge in the seven-week trial said the police officers' version of events was more credible than prosecution witnesses, who were mostly Bell's friends.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
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