Bloomberg Calls for Calm After Shooting

The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, tried to calm growing anger at the police shooting of a black groom on his wedding day, by saying he was "deeply disturbed" by the barrage of shots fired by the officers involved.

The mayor met community leaders today to discuss the incident, in which 23-year-old Sean Bell was killed and two of his friends badly injured.

Witnesses heard around 50 shots at the scene, almost half of which were fired at the car the three men were travelling in after a stag party in a strip club.

An investigation has also been launched amid angry protests at the incident.

Addressing a press conference after today's meeting Mr Bloomberg said: "I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired, but that's up to the investigation to find out what really happened."

The Reverend Al Sharton, a prominent civil rights activist, who attended the meeting said it was "very candid" and "very blunt".

He said the message to Mr Bloomberg was: "This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men."

The meeting came a day after several hundred people held a vigil for Mr Bell, some shouting "No justice, no peace!" and demanding the sacking of the city's police commissioner Ray Kelly. The five officers in the shooting have been suspended bu Mr Bloomberg was steadfast in his support for Mr Kelly.

"I think he's the best police commissioner the city has ever had," he said. "Nobody takes this more seriously than Commissioner Kelly and I do."

Mr Kelly said police shot at the car after it drove forward and struck an undercover officer and an unmarked police minivan. The information was based on interviews with witnesses and two officers who did not fire their weapons, he said.

Mr Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, made a quiet visit to the site of his shootings before dawn today, lighting candles clustered around a photograph of the smiling couple with one of their daughters.

The shootings occurred after 4am Saturday outside the Kalua Cabaret in Queens.

Mr Bell was struck twice. Joseph Guzman, 31, was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, was hit three times. Mr Guzman was in critical condition today and Mr Benefield was stable.

The officers' shots struck the men's car 21 times. They also hit nearby homes and shattered windows at a train station, though no residents were injured.

Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun, but investigators found no weapons. It was unclear what prompted police to open fire, Mr Kelly said.

He added that the groom was involved in a verbal dispute outside the club, and one of his friends referred to a gun.

This is not the first time the NYPD has come under scrutiny over officer-involved shootings.

In 1999, police killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from Guinea in western Africa who was shot 19 times.

The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges. And in 2003, Ousmane Zongo, a native of Burkina Faso in west Africa, was hit four times, twice in the back. In that case, one officer was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, but acquitted of the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter.