Shooting Victim's Mother Calls for Nonviolence
New York, NY —
With the wake this hour and a funeral at seven o'clock for an unarmed Queens man killed in a barrage of police bullets, relatives of two survivors from the weekend shooting are calling for a night of nonviolence. Denise Ford, the mother of shooting victim Trent Benefield, asked people angered at the NYPD to "respect this day."
REPORTER: Ford was joined by Yolanda Guzman, the brother of Joseph Guzman, who's also being hospitalized for bullet wounds. Guzman says any violent action was "not worth it." By three o'clock, one hundred people had lined up to get into the Community Church of Christ, to pay their respects to Sean Bell.
Mayor Bloomberg will not be there, but will send Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. He also is urging calm, as the investigation into the police shooting continues.. but says if there's unrest, the city will handle it.
BLOOMBERG: This city should be about pulling together and talking to each other and trying to works things out -- not trying to tear people apart.
REPORTER: Bloomberg made his comments on his weekly radio show on WABC.
