The father of Sean Bell lashed out at the head police union official who suggested his son brought his death on himself and called him drunk.
According to published reports, William Bell is outraged that detectives union President Michael Palladino called the $7 million wrongful death settlement in the 50-bullet shooting case “an absolute joke.”
“He thinks life is a joke,” William Bell told the Daily News. “I don’t think life is a joke.”
Palladino criticized the then proposed taxpayer-funded settlement, saying that, “Bell was intoxicated and tried to run [the cops] over. The cops who killed the would-be groom on his wedding day outside a Queens strip club were “doing their lawful duty.”
Palladino stood by those words Wednesday (July 28) stating: “The settlement was excessive and disregards Sean Bell’s actions and culpability.”
The settlement gave closure to Bell’s fiancée and his two friends, who were wounded in the hail of 50 police bullets that took his life.
The four-year battle came to a close after the city was ordered to pay Bell’s family $3.25 million to Bell’s family estate.
Part of the settlement also included Bell’s friends, Joseph Guzman, who was shot 11 times and will receive $3 million and Trent Benefield, who was hit three times, will get $900,000.
Bell was gunned down outside the Club Kalua strip club in Jamaica on Nov. 25, 2006, hours before he was to be married.
Three detectives involved in the shooting – Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Gescard Isnora – were acquitted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment in 2008.
Still open season on Black men…
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