City settles Sean Bell shooting lawsuit

The city has agreed to pay more than $7 million to settle a federal lawsuit after five New York Police Department officers shot and killed Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends outside a Queens strip club on what was to have been his wedding day.

The officers fired more than 50 shots at the car in which Bell and two friends—Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield—were as they attempted to drive away from Club Kalua in Jamaica on Nov. 25, 2006. The two children Bell had with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, will receive $3.25 million. Guzman will get $3 million. And Benefield will receive $900,000.

“No amount of money can provide closure, no amount of money can make up for the pain,” said Bell as she left federal court in Downtown Brooklyn.

Michael A. Cardozo, the city's Corporation Counsel, issued a statement after the settlement with the Bell family was announced.

“The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day,” said Cardozo. “The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family. The city is also settling claims with Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement.”

A Queens judge in April 2008 acquitted three of the NYPD detectives who had faced criminal charges in connection with the shooting.

NYPD investigates allegations officers failed to adequately respond to anti-gay attack

News of yet another anti-gay attack in the city is certainly disturbing enough, but the revelation the police officers who responded to it reportedly failed to take it seriously are nothing short of shocking.

Blake Hayes told EDGE and other media outlets a man outside McCoy's Bar on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen shouted anti-gay epithets and attacked his two friends early Saturday morning as they walked by. He said the New York Police Department officers who responded failed to arrest the alleged perpetrator--or even take his contact information. And Hayes added officers at the nearby 18th precinct told his friends not to file a report.

"Once they got there [to the scene,] they had already made up their minds they weren’t going to deal with it," Hayes said.

The NYPD confirmed to Boy in Bushwick its Hate Crimes Task Force is conducting an investigation into the allegations. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn expressed her concern in a statement her office released late Sunday.

"One of the most significant tools that have helped us to combat hate crimes here in New York City is having a strong police response to incidents when they occur," Quinn said. "There was a time in our city when victims of hate crimes did not feel that the police were their allies. Any time a crime of this nature occurs, victims need to know they will be taken seriously."

These allegations come two weeks after José Sucuzhañay's family called upon the NYPD to bring Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott to trial. The two men allegedly killed Sucuzhañay on a Bushwick street corner last December as he and his brother Romel walked home arm-and-arm after a party.

Anti-LGBT attacks remain an obvious problem in the five boroughs and around the country. These allegations against the police, if proven true, simply exacerbate an already serious issue.