A DAY AFTER A FATAL SHOOTING, QUESTIONS, MOURNING AND PROTEST

The undercover police officer who fired the first shots at a carload
of men in Queens early Saturday, setting off a storm of police
bullets that killed a bridegroom and injured two of his friends,
suspected at least one of the men had a gun and was intent on
returning with it to a nearby strip club, according to a person
briefed on the officers' version of events.

In all, five plainclothes officers -- two of them detectives working
under cover -- fired 50 bullets at a silver Nissan Altima, killing
Sean Bell, 23, who was to be married Saturday, and injuring Joseph
Guzman, 31, and Trent Benefield, 23. Moments earlier, just after 4
a.m., the three had left a bachelor party at Club Kalua, a strip club
under surveillance on 94th Avenue in Jamaica.

The undercover detective who fired first had been monitoring the
group in the club. Once outside, the detective heard Mr. Guzman say
"Yo, get my gun, get my gun," and head with the others to his car,
according to police. The undercover officer followed the group on
foot, then positioned himself in front of their car.

According to the person briefed on the accounts, the detective, his
police badge around his neck, then pulled out his gun, identified
himself as a police officer and ordered the occupants to show their
hands. They did not comply, the person said, but instead gunned the
car forward, hitting the undercover officer and, seconds later, an
unmarked police minivan. The undercover officer fired the first of 11
shots, yelling, "He's got a gun! He's got a gun!"

The undercover officer's version of Saturday's shooting came on a day
when he and the four other officers involved in the shooting were put
on paid administrative leave and stripped of their weapons. The
police publicly offered few additional details about the shooting,
refusing to even release the names of the officers involved.

At the same time, hundreds of people in Queens angrily protested the
shooting, prayed and mourned in vigils, and demanded that the officers resign.

But one law enforcement official who had information about Mr.
Benefield's account said the young man told investigators that Mr.
Bell panicked when he saw the undercover officer with a gun because
he did not realize the man was a police officer.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, for his part, on Saturday night called
Mr. Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, 22, who is also the mother of the
couple's two young daughters, to express sympathy, city officials said.

No weapons were found in the Altima, which Mr. Bell had been driving.

In numerous previous police shootings, officers who fired their
weapons were reassigned to administrative duties and allowed to keep
their guns. Often after those shootings, police spokesmen quickly
stated that the shootings appeared to be within department
guidelines, and thus justified.

But Saturday's shootings may have violated department rules, which
largely prohibit officers from firing at vehicles. According to
police guidelines, officers can fire only when they or another person
is threatened by deadly physical force, but not if that physical
force comes from a moving vehicle alone.

"The theory is that if the cops have time to set up a clean shot,
they have time to get out of the way," said Eugene O'Donnell,
professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"The cops shouldn't be firing unless they have a clean line of fire.
If they have the time to establish that shot they probably have time
to get out of the way."

But Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, and
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said it was too early to
characterize the shootings. Mr. Browne said it was the department's
prerogative to put the officers on leave until the department learned
more about how the night's events unfolded.

Police investigators will not be able to interview the five men who
fired their weapons -- four detectives, two of them working
undercover in the nightclub, and one police officer in plain clothes
- -- until the Queens district attorney's office finishes its investigation.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said yesterday that there
would be "a full and fair investigation," but that his inquiry was in
the preliminary stages. He said it would include a review of autopsy
and medical reports, the police reports of the shootings, 911 tapes
and video recordings from inside and outside the club.

He said it was too soon to say whether the case would be presented to
a grand jury. Mr. Brown said that later today, he planned to meet
with the Rev. Al Sharpton, other community leaders and some of the
victims' family members.

But in past police shooting cases, when the facts were in dispute,
evidence was put before a grand jury. He said the inquiry likely
would go on for a number of weeks, but could not say precisely how long.

Roughly 300 protesters gathered at a fiery rally led by Mr. Sharpton
in front of Mary Immaculate Hospital yesterday, where Mr. Benefield
and Mr. Guzman were recovering from their bullet wounds. Some
protesters called for the ouster of Mr. Kelly; others demanded that
the five officers resign.

Malcolm Smith, a Democratic state senator from Queens, urged calm,
saying an impartial investigation was under way, but was drowned out
by a chorus of shouts and boos. When Thomas White Jr., a councilman
who represents the 28th District in Jamaica, said "We are not going
to be angry," the crowd roared back: "Oh, yes we are!"

Many at the protest saw parallels between Saturday's shooting and the
death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Western African immigrant who was
fatally gunned down by police officers in 1999. One sign read, "41
now 50," a reference to the number of shots fired at Mr. Diallo and
the number fired Saturday night.

In Mr. Diallo's shooting death, though, the four officers who fired
at him were white. The undercover officer who fired the first shots
Saturday was a Hispanic black, according to the police. Two other
officers who fired at the Altima were black, and another two were
white, one of whom went through one clip and reloaded his pistol,
firing a total of 31 shots.

Mr. Bell's fiancee, Ms. Paultre, collapsed while walking from
Community Church of Christ, where supporters were gathered, to the
rally, her face twisted with grief. After the rally, protesters
marched around the hospital, filling the street and sidewalks and
chanting. They marched to the 103rd police precinct station, where
officers stood at metal barricades, but the tension broke, and the
crowd returned to the hospital.

After night fell, people gathered in front of Mr. Benefield's
apartment building on 123-65 147th Street in Queens, holding candles,
laying flowers and murmuring prayers.

"Those shootouts are like the Wild Wild West out there," said Bishop
Lester Williams, the pastor at the Community Church of Christ, who
was going to officiate at the wedding. "That's an execution -- that's
like putting someone in front of a firing squad."

Mr. Benefield, who had been struck three times in the leg and
buttock, was alert and in stable condition, and Mr. Guzman, who had
at least 11 bullet wounds along his right side, was in stable but
critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. Mr. Guzman,
according to the state Department of Correctional Services, has a
criminal record including convictions for robbery, criminal
possession of a weapon and criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Sanford Rubenstein, the lawyer representing the two men and their
families, said he had not yet spoken with either man and did not know
their accounts of the night's events.

The police, in describing the events leading to the shooting, said
that undercover officers and detectives from the Manhattan South vice
enforcement squad and the department's narcotics division were
patrolling Club Kalua Saturday following a string of violations there
for prostitution, under-age drinking and weapons complaints. Eight of
the violations this year had resulted in arrests, three of them
involving patrons who were arrested for criminal possession of a
weapon, the police said. One more violation at the club would result
in its closing, the police said.

The undercover officer who eventually fired the first shots Saturday
had been in the club, the police said. He saw one patron pat his
waistband, indicating he had a gun; the undercover officer then
radioed his supervisor, who was in an unmarked police car outside.

The undercover officer then went outside, and saw a group of eight
men, including two men believed to be Mr. Guzman and Mr. Bell,
arguing with another man. Mr. Guzman then asked for his gun,
according to the police.

The group then apparently split up into two groups of four, though it
was unclear whether that patron who had patted his waistband was with
them, the police said. Mr. Guzman and Mr. Bell's group turned the
corner onto Liverpool Street and got into the Altima.

James M. Moschella, a lawyer for the detectives' union who is
representing the four detectives during the preliminary stages of the
investigation, defended their actions yesterday.

"Each officer who discharged their weapons believed that their lives
and the lives of their partners were in imminent danger," he said.

Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detective Endowment
Association, insisted that deadly force was being used against the
detectives, which could have justified their response. "The amounts
of shots that were fired do not necessarily spell out the word
excessive," he said.