Witness Testifies at trial of Police Officers in Sean Bell Case

The testimony from the dancer, Marseilles Payne, 32, in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s shooting was as dramatic as it was at odds with other accounts of that early morning of Nov. 25, 2006. Ms. Payne’s version more closely resembled an account of road rage, with a single detective opening fire after a car collision, than the chaotic events that the police, prosecutors and the defense have described.

Ms. Payne said she last saw Mr. Bell turn on his car’s headlights on Liverpool Street, in Jamaica, Queens, and pull away from the curb. She was at her car and was going to follow him and his friends to a diner for breakfast after her long night of dancing, she said.

“As he came out, a minivan came from behind me and they crashed,” she said. “The driver of the minivan got out of the car. He got out and he started shooting.” She said she was close enough to see the muzzle flash from his pistol.

“I saw the fire, like, three times and I turned and I ran,” she said, adding that she crouched in someone’s shrubs. “I waited for the gunshots to stop. It was about three seconds, and I started to get up, and the gunshots started again.”

The testimony came on the busy second day of the trial, which also featured accounts of Mr. Bell relaxing and celebrating his coming wedding in what would be the last hours of his life, at the Club Kalua. As the group celebrated, a group of undercover officers was on duty at the club, where prostitution and drug activity were suspected.