Attention turned to the car that Sean Bell and his friends were sitting in and a gun that was instrumental in his death at the trial of three police accused of killing him. Cops at the scene accuse Bell of striking one of the detectives with the Nissan Altima in an attempt to flee the scene, initiating a barrage of gunfire that mortally wounded the driver and seriously injured his two passengers. The bullet riddled sedan was thus examined closely during the trial to decipher whether evidence substantiated officers' claims or disputed them.
The testimony of a crime scene investigator reportedly bolstered the detectives' claims and contradicted a prosecution witness who said that Bell only struck an undercover van once before he was fired upon. Det. Gescard Isnora was in the van and then allegedly struck by the car before opening fire. The majority of the bullet holes in the Altima were on the passenger side of the vehicle, also supporting claims that police thought that passenger Joseph Guzman was reaching for a gun, and not just firing haphazardly as the prosecution claims.
Blood on Det. Isnora's Glock service pistol was seen as contradicting statements that he was several feet away from the car when he fired on it. If the blood was spatter from one of the wounded men or Sean Bell, it would indicate that Isnora was practically firing directly into the men at close range. The defense maintains that any blood on Isnora's service weapon found its way there after the shooting when he was cuffing one of the injured men.
