Mayor believes police used excessive force

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in on the uproar over a deadly police shooting, saying bluntly that officers appeared to use excessive force when they fired 50 shots at an unarmed man in a confrontation outside a strip club hours before his wedding.

“I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired, but that’s up to the investigation to find out what really happened,” Bloomberg said at a news conference on Monday after meeting with elected officials and community leaders including the Rev. Al Sharpton, a black civil rights leader, and Rep.Charles Rangel.The groom, Sean Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends wounded early Saturday after a bachelor party at the strip club.Suspecting that one of the men had a gun, police fired into the vehicle.The men were unarmed.In her first public comments on the shooting, Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre, told a radio station Monday that the people who shot her husband shouldn’t be called officers.”They were murderers, murderers,” she told hip-hop station Power 105,1.”They were not officers.No one gives anyone the right to kill somebody.”Sharpton called the conference of leaders a “very candid” meeting.He said the message to Bloomberg was: “This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men.”Some have also questioned whether the shooting was racially motivated because the victims were all black.The five officers who fired their guns included two blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.Of the victims, Bloomberg said on Monday: “There is no evidence that they were doing anything wrong,” referring to everything leading up to the moment they struck an officer with their car.Nampa-APAl Sharpton, a black civil rights leader, and Rep.Charles Rangel.The groom, Sean Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends wounded early Saturday after a bachelor party at the strip club.Suspecting that one of the men had a gun, police fired into the vehicle.The men were unarmed.In her first public comments on the shooting, Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre, told a radio station Monday that the people who shot her husband shouldn’t be called officers.”They were murderers, murderers,” she told hip-hop station Power 105,1.”They were not officers.No one gives anyone the right to kill somebody.”Sharpton called the conference of leaders a “very candid” meeting.He said the message to Bloomberg was: “This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men.”Some have also questioned whether the shooting was racially motivated because the victims were all black.The five officers who fired their guns included two blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.Of the victims, Bloomberg said on Monday: “There is no evidence that they were doing anything wrong,” referring to everything leading up to the moment they struck an officer with their car.Nampa-AP