Friend Testifies In "Sean Bell" Case

Yesterday we were able to hear the chilling testimony of Joseph Guzman, friend of Sean Bell, who was allegedly slained by New York police officers.

Mr. Joseph Guzman’s account of the shooting on Nov. 25, 2006, in Jamaica, Queens, was by far the most detailed version given by one of the men wounded in the barrage of 50 police bullets that claimed Mr. Bell’s life.

It followed testimony on Monday by Trent Benefield, the other passenger in the car, and it was everything Mr. Benefield’s mumbled telling was not: detailed and enraged, combative, questioning and at times almost theatrical. He denied saying, “Go get my gun,” which Detective Isnora said he overhead moments before the shooting, and which set the fatal events in motion.

Both Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield were prosecution witnesses in the sixth week of the trial of Detectives Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, who have been charged in the killing of Mr. Bell. A doctor who treated Mr. Guzman’s grave injuries, the Queens district attorney’s final witness, is expected to testify on Wednesday.