Shooting survivor says NY cops did not show badges

By Staff
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NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) New York City police did not identify themselves before firing 50 bullets at three unarmed black men and killing a groom on his wedding day, a survivor of the November shooting said after leaving the hospital.

''We thought we were getting robbed, that's what we thought at the time,'' said Joseph Guzman, 31, who yesterday said he was shot 16 times and still has six bullets lodged in his body. ''Nobody said it was the police,'' he said.

''I'm not an angel, I never said I was an angel, but we did nothing wrong that night,'' Guzman said at his first news conference since the November 25 shooting that killed his friend Sean Bell hours before the 23-year-old's wedding.

Guzman left the hospital earlier in the day before attending the news conference organized by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton.

In a wheel chair, Guzman said he was unsure if he will walk unaided again.

The New York Police Department was not immediately available to comment on Guzman's version of events. It has previously said an undercover officer had confronted the men in the car and displayed his badge.

Wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt with Bell's name written across it in sparkling letters, Guzman said he wanted the officers involved in the shooting in New York's Queens borough to be charged with murder.

''I don't hate the police. We need the police, basically to make right, but what they did that night was murder,'' said Guzman, who has two sons aged 12 and 6. ''I don't believe all police are bad.'' The Queens district attorney is investigating the shooting and began presenting its case to a grand jury this week. Guzman said he plans to testify at the grand jury.

Police opened fire on the men as they left Bell's bachelor party in an incident that sparked anti-police protests by the city's black community. But Guzman said he does not believe the shooting was racially motivated.

Police have said the officers shot the men while they were in a car outside a strip club, apparently in the belief one of them had gone to fetch a gun to settle a dispute at the club.

''We didn't have a gun,'' said Guzman, who was also wearing a badge with Bell's picture on it. ''We didn't even have a pair of scissors in that car.'' ''There was no words (before the shooting). They came out and did what they did. There was no warning,'' he said. ''I thought 'They're killing us for no reason, no reason at all.''' Reuters PB RS0937

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