Rapper Nas has criticised the New York Police Department, following the fatal shooting of a man leaving his own bachelor party outside a club in Queens.
Police fired 50 rounds of bullets after driver Sean Bell, 23, hit an unmarked police car, reversed into a storefront and then hit the car a second time. It is reported the car may have hit an undercover police officer during the incident.
Bell was killed instantly in the barrage of bullets, while two other passengers were injured, one seriously. It is reported a fourth passenger was in the car, possibly armed.
Reports say one officer took 31 of the shots, and reloaded his weapon during the incident.
In a statement released to MTV News, Nas, a Queens native, said “The one who reloaded should go before the judge and plead guilty. If he was a man, he would be brave enough to face the charges as a man. ... This brutality bullshit is played out with that slave shit. It has to end now. The cops need to be charged the way gangsters are charged.”
Sean Bell was due to be married later that day. Nas and NBA player Chris Webber have both offered financial assistance to Bell’s fiancée and their two children.
--By our New York staff.
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