The Closer You Look, the Worse it Gets for Detective Oliver

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In the wake of the three indictments in the Sean Bell (50-shot) shooting, one thing’s becoming clearer and that is that Detective Michael Oliver may be THE PROBLEM here.

After all, he is almost single-handedly responsible for over 60% of the shots fired that day (31 of the 50), he also exercised equally poor judgment in feting himself and friends to a $4200 “celebration” at a trendy Manhattan eatery on the day of the indictments and now it turns out that he fired EVERY shot that hit the three victims (Bell, Guzman and Benefield).

Had Michael Oliver been replaced with another detective who’d fired four shots, the barrage would’ve been 23 shots and not the fifty shots that have raised so many eyebrows.

At this point, with being responsible for over 60% of the shots fire, and all of the hits, as well as “celebrating” on the day of the indictment, it would seem that Michael Oliver may very well NEED proof of a fourth passenger and gunman in order to avoid a manslaughter conviction.

The circumstances certainly bode better for Gescard Isnora (also charged with manslaughter) and Marc Cooper (charged with reckless endangerment), but Michael oliver certainly hasn’t helped his case much.

Detective Oliver Fires a Round Into His Own Foot

Detective Michael Oliver didn’t help himself with his $4200 celebratory dinner at Nello the day he and two other NYPD Officers were indicted in the Sean bell shooting.

One PBA source was quoted as saying, “He just convicted himself and if we don’t rein him in, he’s going to bring the others down with him.”

The problem with the high profile fete was that there wasn’t anything for Oliver to be celebrating! Moreover, that kind of move is indicative of the kind of judgment you might expect from an officer who emptied sixteen initial shots (a full fifteen round clip and one chambered round), then re-loaded and emptied another fifteen shot clip, in accounting for an astounding 31 of the 50 shots fired by the NYPD that night!

Recognizing how difficult police work is, most law-abiding citizens want to give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but this is the kind of judgment that makes you cringe at the prospect of a Michael Oliver taking the stand in his own defense.


See also: http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03182007/news/regionalnews/havin_a_blast_regionalnews_lawrence_schwartzwald__angela_montefinise_and_melissa______jane_kronfeld.htm

11th Hour Witness Rocks Queens "50-Shot" Case

Just as a Queens grand jury began deliberations - a janitor walked into a Queens police station house and told detectives he saw a man fire one shot at cops before disappearing into a building, law-enforcement sources said.
This latest eye-witness account would seem to resuscitate the “fourth-man theory,” that the police on the scene have swore to since the investigation started.

The witness, whose name is being withheld, has single-handedly thrown the already tense case into full boil, giving the cops hope of a last-minute reprieve while igniting charges of chicanery among the anxious supporters of Bell, who was slain while two of his friends were shot, just hours before his scheduled wedding.

Bell was killed last Nov. 25 near a Jamaica strip club that hosted his bachelor party. Cops involved said they believed someone in Bell's party was carrying a gun, and confronted the group in Bell's car as they tried to pull off. No gun was recovered.

Of the 50 shots, 31 came from Detective Michael Oliver (photo above).

Sources said the new witness is actually an old one who failed to give cops the information when first interviewed.

"I guess his conscience got to him and he wanted to tell all he knew," one law-enforcement source said.

According to the New York Post, “the witness heard a car crash as he was dumping trash on Liverpool Street in Jamaica. When he turned to inspect the commotion, the sources said, he witnessed part of the shooting - including a gunman, who he did not believe was a police officer, firing in the direction of the cops.”

It remains to be seen if this new witness is going to prove believable and what impact that testimony will have on the Grand Jury.

Victim of Police Shooting Rebuffs the Race Charge Made by Others

This past Wednesday (January 24, 2007), NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly was grilled by the New York City Council on the November 25th Sean Bell killing, in which undercover cops fired fifty shots at a car Sean Bell was driving.

In Kelly’s opening statement he said, “However it should be noted that the first officer who fired his weapon that night was black and of the five officers who fired their weapons that night, three were black and two were white.”

He added, “...we strongly contest that the Department engages in any racial profiling.”

As expected, Commissioner Kelly’s remarks sparked outrage among some of the Council members.

Helen Foster (D-Bnx) said, “This is real. SO when you say it’s not racially motivated...it doesn’t matter because you’re not the one being racially profiled.”

Charles Barron (D-Bklyn) said, “You have sent a signal to your department that they can kill us, brutalize us with impunity. They know that 99% of the time they’re going to get away with it, whether it’s 41 bullets (a reference to the 1999 Amadou Diallo killing) or 50 bullets, no matter what it is, they’re going to get away with it.”

Ironically enough, Joseph Guzman, who was in the car and was hit with 16 of the 50 shots, said “I’m not going to sit here and play the race card, I don’t think this was racial, but I do think a crime was committed.”

Of course Guzman’s testimony means nothing to the likes of Charles Barron, to Barron, black police officers “are Blue.”