After four long years of waiting and hoping for a just outcome in the tragic police shooting death of Sean Bell in November of 2006, the city of New York has agreed to pay more than $7 million to settle the case. Bell was killed in a hail of bullets fired by police officers outside of a Queens, N.Y., strip club where the 23-year-old was having a bachelor party. He was due to be married only hours later, before he was shot some 50 times.
Under the terms of the agreement, Bell’s estate will receive $3.25 million. Bell’s two young children with fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell, Jada and Jordyn, are alleged to be his only heirs. Ms. Bell will not receive a portion of the settlement as she was not legally married to him at the time of his death. Joseph Guzman, who was wounded in the shooting, will receive $3 million and another friend, Trent Benefield, will receive $900,000.
The lawsuit accused the police of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations.
“The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family,” said attorney Michael Cardozo in a press release, corporation counsel for the city of New York.
–l. martin pratt johnson
