14 Memorable Black News Events of The Decade

Police Brutality and The Death of Sean Bell

In the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006 in Queens, NY, Sean Bell, 23, who was supposed to be married later that day, was leaving a strip club with two friends. Unbeknownst to the men, the strip club was under police surveillance. Reportedly, one undercover police officer claimed to have heard one of Bell’s friends say ‘yo, get my gun.’ The plain clothed undercover officer followed the group to question them before they left the scene. Bell and his friends climbed into a gray Nissan Altima and Bell, who was legally intoxicated, accelerated and struck a black unmarked police minivan. He backed up onto a sidewalk, almost hit the undercover officer, and accelerated into the van again. In response, five police officers fired 50 rounds at Bell’s car. Bell was killed and his friends were severely wounded.

The incident brought back memories of the high-profile police shooting and death of Amadou Diallo, who was killed when police fired 41 shots at him in 1999. Three of the police officers in Bell’s case were indicted for first and second-degree manslaughter, as well as reckless endangerment. But all three were acquitted of all charges in April 2008. Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, filed a lawsuit against the NYPD for wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations, and received $3.25 million in July.

Another high profile brutality case that’s still in the news today is the one involving Oscar Grant, who was shot to death in Oakland California in January 2009 by a police officer even though Grant was unarmed.