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Survivors of 50-bullet NYPD barrage talk to D.A.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- For the first time, investigators with the district attorney's office Monday interviewed two wounded survivors of the 50-bullet barrage by police that killed a man as he left his bachelor party, the men's lawyer said.

Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, both still hospitalized with gunshot wounds, "have begun their cooperation with the Queens district attorney's office," said attorney Sanford Rubenstein.

The men were expected to help answer two key questions about the perplexing case: Was there a fourth man, perhaps armed, in or near the car with the others when the first of five officers opened fire? And did that officer identify himself?

Rubenstein said his clients claim the answers are no and no -- "unequivocally" -- a response that contradicts accounts provided by police lawyers and union officials.

Through his lawyer, the first police officer to shoot has insisted he had his badge out and had identified himself when, believing Guzman was pulling a gun, he opened fire.

He and other witnesses also have said there was a fourth man in or near the car who ran away, possibly with a gun.

Sean Bell, 23, was killed outside a seedy Queens strip club, hours before he was supposed to get married. (Watch protesters on the march in Queens )

Police union officials urged prosecutors to conduct an impartial investigation.

"Fiction on the street shouldn't become fact in the courtroom," said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association.

Visiting a Florida elementary school with Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was offended by some of the protests since the shooting, including one sign that read, "Death to Pigs."

"It's disgusting and disgraceful and they should have learned from the past that those kinds of thoughts and signs have no place in our society, no matter what happened Saturday morning a week ago," the mayor said.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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