New York City settles for $7.15M in Sean Bell police shooting

The city agreed Tuesday to pay more than $7 million to settle a wrongful death civil suit lodged by the fianceé and pals of Sean Bell, an unarmed man gunned down by cops on his wedding day, sources said.

The settlement, approved by a Brooklyn federal magistrate, ends a four-year legal battle by tragic would-be bride Nicole Paultre Bell and two men wounded in a 50-shot barrage that claimed her lover's life.

Under the agreement, the city will pay Paultre Bell, the mother of Sean Bell's two children, $3.25 million, according to a source familiar with the settlement.

Bell's pals Joseph Guzman, 35, will receive $3 million and Trent Benefield, 27, will be granted $900,000.

Guzman and Benefield were both wounded in the hail of police gunfire outside the Club Kalua strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006, just hours before Bell was to get married.

Detectives Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Gescard Isnora were all acquitted at trial 2008 of criminal charges stemming from the Bell shooting.

The cops fired on Bell's lurching car after mistakenly believing someone inside had a gun and that Bell was trying to run them down.

The NYPD still has not decided whether to discipline a total of five officers involved in the shooting.

Federal Magistrate Roanne Mann signed off on the settlement during a closed door meeting with attoeys representing the city, Paultre Bell and the two shooting survivors.

Detectives union President Michael Palladino called the settlement "an absolute joke."

"The police were there doing their lawful duty. Bell was intoxicated and tried to run them over," Palladino said. "The taxpayers are now on the hook for $7 million. There's something seriously wrong with that picture."