By Don Evans
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
And Associated Press

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — As part of a citywide protest at several locations called by the Rev. Al Sharpton to protest the verdict in the Sean Bell Case, a group of several hundred demonstrators met at the House of the Lord Church on Atlantic Avenue around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The crowd, led by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry and Councilman Charles Barron, then left the church. By 4 p.m., they were approaching Brooklyn Bridge at Tillary and Adams Streets, chanting the number of shots that police fired at Bell and his companions.

At Tillary and Adams, they were held back by police, and traffic was not interrupted to any great extent. The crowd then marched down Tillary Street and attempted to enter Flatbush Avenue Extension, the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. There, they were again turned back by police, including a six-man mounted unit.

Finally, the crowd marched east on Tillary, attempting to enter the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Again, halted, they returned to Tillary and Flatbush around 4:45 p.m. All who wanted to be arrested were asked to assemble in the middle of the intersection. As part of the civil disobedience, around 50 people were arrested.

Sharpton is seeking a federal civil rights investigation into Bell’s shooting outside a Queens nightclub, which raised questions about police use of deadly force in minority neighborhoods.

Bell was black, as are two of his friends who were wounded in the shooting; the three officers acquitted in the case are Hispanic, black and white.

U.S. attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza in Brooklyn said Wednesday that the case was under review, but he declined further comment.

Bell crossed paths with the undercover detectives early on his wedding day as he was leaving his bachelor party with friends.

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