NY detectives plead not guilty in shooting

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two New York police officers were charged with manslaughter and a third with reckless endangerment on Monday in the firing of 50 shots at three unarmed black men that killed a groom on his wedding day.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced the grand jury indictments while demonstrators outside extended a series of protests alleging police brutality and racial profiling.

Two other officers were cleared in the death of Sean Bell, 23. The charges failed to satisfy some activists who had been calling for murder indictments against all five and drew criticism from the detectives' union which called them excessive.

The three defendants pleaded innocent in a packed courtroom that included Bell's fiancee, his mother and the two surviving victims.

Two detectives -- a white and a Hispanic -- face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter. They were released on bail.

The third, who is black, faces one year if convicted of reckless endangerment. He was released on his own recognizance.

"This is not a victory. We are going to take this all the way to China if we've got to. We are here to fight," Bell's friend Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot 16 times and still has six bullets in his body, told reporters as he rose out of his wheelchair.

Five police officers fired 50 shots at Bell's car around 4 a.m. on November 25 in the mistaken belief someone had gone to fetch a gun to settle a dispute inside a strip club where Bell, Guzman and Trent Benefield, 23, had celebrated Bell's bachelor party.

'HEAT ON THE STREET'

Bell was to marry the mother of his two children that day.

"It is a travesty of justice," said City Councilman Charles Barron, who has led street protests. "It's a set-up for a slap on the wrist. We are going to keep the heat on the street because this is wrong."

The president of the Detectives' Endowment Association called it a "dark day for our detectives and for the New York Police Department" because the charges imply the detectives intended to kill.

"This case has to be tried in a court of law, not the court of public opinion. And that's where it's been tried for the last four months," Michael Palladino told a news conference. "Cops have rights, too."

Brown, the district attorney, said he would oppose any attempt to move the trial outside New York City, an option the defense could request if it believes potential jurors were biased.

Changes of venue have been controversial, as in the 1999 killing of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, 23, who was shot at 41 times by four New York police officers.