NEW YORK - Four of the five officers who together fired 50 gunshots at the 
car of an unarmed man on his wedding day hadn't completed mandatory firearms 
training, a group of black officers alleged Thursday. 
 
 
 | 
    Larenzo Kindred, left, and Jean Nelson, right, who both say 
 they witnessed last month's police shooting of Sean Bell, take turns 
 giving brief statements during a news conference at City Hall Tuesday, 
 Dec. 12, 2006, in New York. [AP]
  
  | 
New York Police Department 
brass "failed to ensure these officers were properly trained," said Marquez 
Claxton, a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.
At a news conference outside police headquarters, Claxton alleged that four 
plainclothes officers involved in the Nov. 25 killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell 
and the wounding of two companions attended only one of two annual "training 
cycles" at the police shooting range. The fifth shooter, an unidentified 
undercover detective, had done both practice sessions, he added.
"When you fail to attend these training cycles, tragedies occur," Claxton 
said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the officers' track record on training 
was unremarkable.
"Ideally, everyone goes to two cycles, but it's not unusual for officers not 
to complete both cycles in one year," he said.
The fraternal organization - made up of current and retired law 
enforcement officers from the NYPD and other agencies - claimed that a 
preliminary police department report about the shooting contains proof the 
officers were undertrained.
The victims in the shooting were black; the officers were white, black and 
Hispanic.
The report lists the last time each officer was at the shooting range: One 
who fired 31 of the 50 rounds was there April 5; another on March 3; another on 
Jan. 12; and another on March 21. The undercover detective last took practice on 
Oct. 4, it says.
The report also notes that none of the officers had ever fired their weapons 
in the field before the confrontation outside a Queens topless bar where Bell's 
bachelor party intersected with a police undercover operation targeting 
suspected prostitution.
Police have said undercover officers believed the victims were going to 
retrieve a gun, but no weapons were found. The undercover officer, who initiated 
the gunfire, has said through his lawyer that he saw a fourth, possibly armed 
man flee the car.
Civilian witnesses supported that claim and identified the fourth person as 
Jean Nelson, police said. Nelson and the two survivors from the car, Trent 
Benefeld and Joseph Guzman, have denied he was in or near the car when the 
gunfire erupted.
The officers are on paid administrative leave while Queens prosecutor Richard 
Brown determines whether they will face criminal charges.