Mayor meets with slain man's family

The police shooting stemmed from an undercover operation at a strip club.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg met Tuesday with the family of the man who was killed on his wedding day in a barrage of police gunfire as he left his bachelor party, and investigators questioned a third civilian witness.
Three days after the fatal encounter, it remained unclear why four detectives and one police officer opened fire while conducting an undercover operation at a strip club.
The unidentified witness was on a darkened block in Queens when five police officers killed 23-year-old Sean Bell and injured two friends as the three sat inside a car, officials said.
There are two other civilian witnesses: One woman on the street who says she saw officers firing their weapons, and a second woman who from her window spotted a man running away from the area around the time of the shooting. Investigators are trying to determine if that man had been with the three who were shot.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg went to the Bell family's Queens church, where he met for about an hour with the parents and fianc & eacute;e of the victim, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton. The mayor then met at a restaurant with about 50 community leaders.
City hall meeting
The mayor held a similar meeting Monday at city hall in which he declared that officers appeared to use "excessive force" when Bell was killed hours before his wedding. He stood by his comments Tuesday.
"I am a civilian. I am not a professional law enforcement officer," he said. "I used the word excessive and that's fine. That was my personal opinion. It may turn out to be that it was not excessive."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said some tension was inevitable because of "the nature of what police departments do -- we arrest people, we give them summonses, we're the bearers of bad news, we use force and sometimes we use deadly force."
An attorney for the detectives union, Philip Karasyk, has called the case "a tragedy, but not a crime."
Union officials familiar with the officers' account say at least one undercover detective was convinced there was a gun in the car. They also allege that Bell defied orders to stop and used the vehicle as a weapon, bumping the undercover detective and ramming an unmarked police van.
Undercover operation
The gunfire early Saturday stemmed from an undercover operation inside the Kalua Cabaret, where seven officers in plain clothes were investigating alleged prostitution and drug use.
Kelly has said Bell was involved in an argument outside the club after 4 a.m., and one of his friends made a reference to a gun. An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, they drove forward -- striking him and an undercover police minivan, Kelly said.
The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.
The five officers were placed on paid administrative leave and stripped of their guns during the investigation.
The survivors were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition and Benefield in stable condition Monday.
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