Experts: Too Soon to Label NYPD Shooting

Rev. Lester Williams holds Sean Bell's marriage license inside the Community Church of Christ in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006. Williams was to marry Bell and his his fiancee this past Saturday, the day the unarmed Bell was gunned down by undercover agents in a hail of bullets as he left a strip club with friends. Now Williams instead will preside over Bell's funeral services, scheduled for Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (Kathy Willens - AP)

After the detective fired, the others joined in, police said.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg went to the Queens church frequented by the Bell family, where he met for about an hour with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the parents and fiancee of the groom.

The mayor said he stands by his earlier comments about the shooting.

"I am a civilian. I am not a professional law enforcement officer," he said. "I used the word excessive and that's fine. That was my personal opinion."

Bloomberg has said the shooters appeared to have violated the policy stating that officers cannot shoot at a vehicle being used as a weapon if no other deadly force is involved.

But Maki Haberfeld, another John Jay professor and specialist in the use of deadly force, said she believes that "if the officer was struck by the car on purpose, to me the shooting was justified."

Police officials on Tuesday said that detectives had located a new witness who apparently saw the officers open fire. They also were trying to identify more potential witnesses by studying video recorded by a security camera at the entrance of Kalua Cabaret in Queens.

Also missing are the accounts of two key witnesses: Men who were partying at the club with Bell on the eve of his wedding before getting caught in the hail of gunfire aimed at the groom's car. Joseph Guzman, 31, shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, hit three times, have remained hospitalized.

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Associated Press Writer Sara Kugler contributed to this report.