NYPD Shooting Grand Jury Makes Decision

New York, NY —

A grand jury reached a decision Friday on whether to bring charges against five police officers who unleashed a 50-bullet barrage that killed a man on his wedding day. But the city will have to wait until Monday to hear it.

News of the decision came after three days of deliberations that included the emergence of a last-minute witness who testified Thursday.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown scheduled an announcement for Monday on the grand jury's decision.

"Until such time, the results of the grand jury's deliberations remained sealed as a matter of law," the district attorney's office said.

The shooting that killed Sean Bell, 23, stirred outrage around New York City and led to accusations of racism against police. Bell was black, as are two of his friends who were wounded in the shooting. Two of the officers are white, and three are black.

Anticipation has been running high around New York City about the grand jury's decision. Extra police officers were put on standby and the mayor met with black leaders in the Queens neighborhood where shooting occurred in hopes of defusing any tensions that might arise from the decision.

"Whatever the grand jury says ... I think you will see the people of this city behaving in an exemplary manner," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. "They can be disappointed, they can express themselves - that's freedom of speech, I don't have a problem with that. But nobody is going to go out and make our streets unsafe."

A 23-person grand jury is hearing the case, and 12 grand jurors needed to vote for an indictment for charges to be brought. The panel includes eight blacks, seven whites, and a mix of Hispanics and Asians.

Grand jurors had been instructed to consider several charges: second-degree murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide stemming from Bell's death; and attempted murder, assault or reckless endangerment in the wounding of survivors Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman.

The case took a strange twist Thursday when a last-minute witness emerged and testified before the grand jury. While the credibility of the witness is not known, his testimony could aid the officers if he helps convince grand jurors that the officers were justified in opening fire.

Detectives' Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said the witness was a 55-year-old man who went to a police station on Wednesday to say he had been working on the night of the shooting near the strip club where it occurred.

The witness told detectives he saw a man fire one or two shots at a police officer and then flee into a nearby building. The man also told detectives that he heard officers identifying themselves as police, said Palladino, who had been briefed on the situation by detectives.

"I don't know where this man came from," Palladino said. "But this guy could have a vital piece of information ... The man told detectives that he didn't come forward sooner because he was afraid and overwhelmed."