Armed Man Said Not Mentioned In Shooting, NYPD report says nothing about 4th man Options

[batmanchester]

NEW YORK - Witnesses interviewed for a preliminary report on the police shooting of three men — including a groom on his wedding day — did not mention a fourth, possibly armed man who police say may have been present before officers opened fire, a newspaper reported Monday.

The New York Times obtained a copy of the police department's 23-page preliminary report of the shooting, a detailed look at what happened on Nov. 25 when Sean Bell, 23, and his two friends were caught in a barrage of 50 bullets after a bachelor party at a strip club in Queens. Bell's friends were wounded; all three men were unarmed.

Police have suggested a fourth man may have had a gun and fled when the plainclothes officers opened fire, but the report made no mention of such a man, whom the surviving victims have said does not exist. Some in the community claim the officers invented the man to justify the shooting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_...police_shooting