Firing Sought for One of Two Officers in Bell Shooting Case

From NYTimes.com

Prosecutors with the New York Police Department recommended on Wednesday that one of the two officers being tried in connection with the killing of Sean Bell five years ago should be allowed to stay on the force while the other should be fired.

In closing arguments in a departmental administrative trial, prosecutors said that Detective Gescard F. Isnora, who fired the first shots in a 50-bullet barrage that killed Mr. Bell on what was supposed to have been his wedding day, should lose his job, but a lesser punishment — the loss of 30 vacation days — was appropriate for Officer Michael Carey, who fired three of the shots.

“Maybe Detective Isnora was frightened; maybe Detective Isnora was nervous,” said Nancy Slater, one of the prosecutors. “I submit he overreacted.”

Ms. Slater also questioned the detective’s judgment in coming out of his undercover role, approaching Mr. Bell’s car with his gun drawn and his shield clipped to his collar, and opening fire on the car early on the morning of Nov. 25, 2006.

Last week, Detective Isnora testified that he thought Mr. Bell and his friend Joseph Guzman, who were parked outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens, were about to take part in a drive-by shooting. He has said his belief that Mr. Guzman had a gun was based on a heated argument that he overheard in front of the strip club.

But Ms. Slater argued that going from thinking that the man may have had a gun to “I alone have to come out of role and stop a drive-by” was “a huge leap of logic.”

In contrast, Ms. Slater characterized Officer Carey as the victim of “contagious firing” and blamed him for relying too heavily on Detective Isnora’s actions when he decided to start shooting.

“He didn’t know who he was firing at; he didn’t know why he was firing,” Ms. Slater said.

In his closing arguments, Detective Isnora’s lawyer, Philip E. Karasyk, argued that the prosecution was unfairly judging an officer “who has to make life or death decisions in a heartbeat.”

“In that split-second judgment call, Detective Isnora believed Joseph Guzman had a firearm and was about to use it,” Mr. Karasyk said. The police did not find a weapon on Mr. Guzman.

Detective Isnora was acquitted of criminal charges in a State Supreme Court trial in 2008. Officer Carey was not charged criminally.

Officer Carey’s lawyer, Stephen C. Worth, argued that his client’s decision to open fire was based on the information that he had at the time, and that if Mr. Guzman had had a weapon and Officer Carey had not fired, he would have been accused of failing to defend a fellow officer.

The judge presiding over the case, Deputy Commissioner Martin G. Karopkin, will send a recommendation to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who will decide the professional fate of the two officers.