'My friend is dead'
Bell's pal Benefield sez no warning,
no 4th man
BY ALISON GENDAR and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sitting in a wheelchair, a survivor of the 50-shot police barrage
that killed Sean Bell on his wedding day said, "I thought
I was going to die."
"I've seen hell before," Trent Benefield said
yesterday before being released from Mary Immaculate Hospital
in Queens. "I never thought it would be me."
In his first public statements since the Thanksgiving weekend
shooting, Benefield bolstered the claims of fellow survivor,
Joseph Guzman - who told the Daily News a day earlier that
the plainclothes cops failed to identify themselves before
opening fire on the unarmed men.
"One of my friends is dead," Benefield told New
York 1. "Everyone is shot up. I'm shot up. We need justice."
Benefield, 23, who managed to crawl out of the backseat
of Bell's car after being shot three times, also denied police
assertions that a fourth man was in Bell's Nissan Altima
before the Nov. 25 shooting.
"No," he said in a soft voice, his damaged left
leg sticking straight out with a rod holding it in place. "No
fourth man."
Benefield's account of Bell's death has been consistent
since the shooting. Just minutes after the gunfire, a bleeding
Benefield told The News through a friend, "The police
didn't identify who they were. They just pulled guns out."
"Sean saw a guy dressed just like us pulling a gun," Benefield
told the pal before being placed into an ambulance. "He
just wanted to try and drive away."
Guzman, 31, remains in stable condition with multiple gunshot
words. He told The News he was aware that Bell's death was
roiling the mostly black area of Jamaica, Queens, and called
on outraged residents to stay calm. Benefield echoed those
sentiments yesterday.
"I don't want nobody to go through this," he said. "We
need justice."
Benefield, who also revealed he was about to become the
father of a son, was taken by stretch limo last night to
a midtown meeting with the Rev. Al Sharpton and other community
leaders, who are planning a Dec. 16 march down Fifth Ave.
After receiving a standing ovation, Benefield thanked everyone "for
sticking by me" and then wept.
Benefield spoke a day after The News learned from law enforcement
sources that he and his pals had been the targets of a police
probe into a drug ring operating out of the Baisley Park
apartments in South Jamaica. All three had been busted before
on drug charges.
Attorney Michael Hardy, who is representing Benefield, Guzman
and Bell's fiancée, accused cops of trying to "dirty
up the victims." Pressed by reporters to say who specifically,
Hardy said, "Ask Pat Lynch," referring to the president
of the city's largest police union.
"Patently untrue," Lynch said later. "All
we've consistently asked for is a through and fair investigation
of the case."
Lynch has defended the five cops who fired the fatal shots
while ripping Mayor Bloomberg for saying the police shooting
appeared "excessive."
Bloomberg declined to discuss the victims' prior arrests
yesterday. "We certainly don't want to prejudice" the
investigation, he said, referring to a probe led by the Queens
district attorney's office and monitored by the Justice Department.
The cops - one Hispanic, two white and two black - were
placed on paid leave without their guns pending the outcome
of the probe.
The shooting erupted near the seedy Kalua Cabaret in Jamaica
where Guzman and Benefield threw a bachelor party for Bell.
Believing Guzman was armed, an undercover cop followed the
men to Bell's car about 4 a.m. and fired the opening salvo.
No gun was found in Bell's car.
With Mike Jaccarino, Greg Wilson
and Oren Yaniv
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