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AP -NEW YORK - The surviving victims of a police shooting that left a groom-to-be dead in New York City were portrayed as lying thugs and the three officers as trigger-happy cowboys in closing arguments.
In a three-hour dissection of the shooting, prosecutor Charles Testagrossa noted Monday that undercover detective Michael Oliver fired 31 of the 50 total shots — even pausing to reload — at a car carrying the three men.
Groom Sean Bell, 23, was killed Nov. 25, 2006 — which would have been his wedding day — outside a bar where he had a bachelor party. Two friends with him in a car — Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield — were wounded.
Oliver "was taking his time," Testagrossa said before he broke the silence in a packed courtroom by mimicking gunshots — "Bam! Bam! Bam!"
He continued: "Thirty-one shots. Thirty-one separate pulls of the trigger. ... Thirty-one separate decisions to use deadly force. Thirty-one opportunities to pause and reassess whether continuing firing was necessary.
"Thirty-one opportunities to save an innocent life," he said.
Bell "had everything in the world to live for," Testagrossa added.
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