IN SEEKING CLUES TO POLICE SHOOTING, A SEARCH AND ARRESTS

Detectives investigating the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell, an
unarmed 23-year-old black man, arrested four people at a Queens
apartment building and seized a loaded semiautomatic handgun and a
bag of marijuana, the police said yesterday.

The arrests were believed to be part of a broad police effort to
locate witnesses -- including one described by many in the case as a
"fourth man" -- who may have briefly been in Mr. Bell's car on
Saturday morning in the moments before five police officers fired a
fusillade of 50 bullets. Mr. Bell was killed in the gunfire, and his
two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were injured.

The arrests did little to cool tensions in an emotionally charged
case. One of those arrested, LaToya Smith, said in an interview that
she knew Mr. Benefield, who lives in the same complex, as well as Mr.
Bell, who she said was helpful to her in the past. Friends and family
of the three men said the police were acting overzealously by
arresting those who knew the dead and injured men, and noted that all
three were victims who have not been charged with any crimes.

They also questioned the existence of the fourth man.

"If he's bionic, and he's that good to get away from those bullets, I
want to meet him, too," said Eboni Browning, Mr. Guzman's fiancee,
after leaving his bedside at Mary Immaculate Hospital.

Investigators have said they are looking for a man in a beige jacket
who was seen fleeing the shooting location about 4:15 a.m. on
Saturday. The first detective to open fire has said he believed one
of the men in the car had a gun. Finding a gun -- or a man who was
carrying one -- would corroborate that version and possibly change
the dynamics of how prosecutors and the public view the shooting.
Officials said they were trying to determine the history of the gun
found in the apartment, but that it had not been linked to any of the
men in the car.

Also last night, law enforcement officials said that they were
talking to several people and that one man was taken in for
questioning. The Queens district attorney's office said the man's
lawyer contacted them and informed them that his client did not want
to speak to the police, so he was subsequently released.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he had decided not to
attend Mr. Bell's funeral, scheduled for today at the Community
Church of Christ, in Jamaica, Queens. It is where he was to have
married Nicole Paultre on Saturday, the day he died.

"I've expressed myself, my sympathies on behalf of the city to the
family," Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that he had asked Deputy Mayor
Dennis M. Walcott, who lives in the neighborhood, to represent the
city at the funeral. Mr. Bloomberg said that he and his aides had
spoken to the family and their minister on Wednesday.

Police officials said that two search warrants were executed early on
Wednesday at apartments at 123-65 147th Street, leading to the
arrests of Stanley Smith, 23, Ms. Smith, 26, Timothy Smith, 19, and
Christopher Keyes, 18, on charges of criminal possession of a weapon.
Those warrants were part of a continuing narcotics investigation.

Yesterday, Ms. Smith was back home describing how detectives "broke
down our door" with their guns drawn at 6 a.m. on Wednesday and took
her and her brothers and their friend in for questioning. Ms. Smith
said the police "had to let me go," without charging her. But bail
was set at $2,000 each for her brothers and at $1,000 for Mr. Keyes.

A criminal complaint against Stanley and Timothy Smith and Mr. Keyes
said that a loaded, black Smith & Wesson 9-millimeter semiautomatic
was found in a bedroom closet and that the weapon's serial number had
been scratched off. One of those charged had a bag of marijuana, the
police said.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday that the warrant
that led to the arrests was executed "in conjunction" with the
investigation of the shooting of Mr. Bell. "The warrant execution
took place as a result of previous purchases of narcotics at that
location," where the raid took place, he said at a news conference at
1 Police Plaza.

But people at the apartment complex in Queens, where candles and
photos were set up in tribute to Mr. Bell, said they were outraged by
the police behavior.

And the mood was the same at Mary Immaculate Hospital, where Mr.
Benefield and Mr. Guzman were recuperating.

"I'm enraged," said Bishop Erskine Williams, who said that his
26-year-old son, Erskine Williams Jr., was arrested yesterday on a
warrant for an unpaid summons of $25. He was soon released. "They're
harassing a lot of male blacks where we live, and it's got to stop,"
the bishop said.

According to the bishop, who said he was in a group of people who met
with Mayor Bloomberg on Monday, his son, who knows Mr. Guzman and Mr.
Benefield, was questioned by the police about Mr. Bell's bachelor
party, whether he was there, and what those involved might have told him.

"It's obvious the police need to build a case," said the bishop, who
is the pastor of New Seasons Family Worship Center in Jamaica. He
said the Smiths are his niece and nephews and that Stanley Smith is
the keyboard player at his church. "They don't have credible
evidence. Their methods are wrong, even if their intentions may be pure."

In an interview, his son said that after he spent a night in the
hospital watching over Mr. Benefield, detectives checked him for
tattoos and pressed him for details about what Mr. Benefield had
said. "They know I'm Trent's best friend," said the younger Mr.
Erskine. "That's why they're harassing me."

Others at the complex where the arrests took place, the Baisley Park
Gardens, said the police were asking about a man nicknamed Ducky.

Mr. Kelly declined to speak about any incremental developments in the
police investigation. He said there was nothing he could do about the
skepticism about the existence of a fourth man. "The existence of a
fourth person is a part of this investigation," Mr. Kelly said. "It's
one of the issues being addressed by investigators."

The police efforts are being led by the same unit of the Internal
Affairs Bureau that spearheaded the inquiry into the police shooting
of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, seven years ago.

Borrowing a tactic used by politicians, Mr. Kelly, as he has in the
past, said yesterday that he has impaneled a committee to review all
the policies and procedures governing the activities of undercover
officers throughout the department.