The Sean Bell trial progresses, with recent attention falling on a bruise below the right knee of Detective Gescard F. Isnora. It was allegedly sustained when Isnora was struck by the car driven by Sean Bell.
Isnora claims he leaped out of the way to avoid more serious injury. Bell then reportedly rammed his car into an unmarked police van, then a wall, and then the van again, where it came to a stop. He was then killed in a fusillade of gunfire from three detectives, and two passengers were injured.
In addition to the photo of Det. Isnora's bruise, the prosecution displayed photos of Bell's clothing, along with the other two passengers' clothes. The New York Times describes a grim montage:
The most graphic images were photographs of the victims’ clothes, which had been laid out on brown paper in a parking lot behind a crime laboratory, Detective Greg Anzalone testified. Mr. Bell’s shirt had been cut off of him by paramedics trying to revive him. His boxer shorts were stained with blood, and the photograph of them, blown up on an overhead screen, drew gasps from his relatives.
But perhaps more startling were the photographs of Mr. Guzman’s clothes. Prosecutors said he was shot 19 times, and the blood-soaked clothes show it, his T-shirt almost more red than white.
The court also heard from the Port Authority cops on patrol along an AirTrain platform a block from the shooting. They sought cover and urged passengers to hit the deck when an errant bullet from the 50-shot barrage shattered a window on the platform. Video of the the glass shattering at the platform caused a Bell family supporter to say, "Oh, Jesus."
