After years of not wanting to talk publicly about being shot multiple times by police, one survivor says now is the right time because of the Eric Garner case. In an exclusive sit-down interview with NY1 criminal justice reporter Dean Meminger, Joseph Guzman talks about the pain of the Sean Bell shooting and his hopes for the future.
Joseph Guzman is a survivor of one of the most controversial NYPD shootings in recent city history.
"I was shot 16 times in the car with Sean Bell," he says.
It was November 2006. Sean Bell was leaving his bachelor party in Queens with Guzman and another friend, Trent Benefield. Undercover police officers said they thought the men had a gun.
Officers said as they tried to stop Bell's car, he tried run them over. Officers fired 50 shots into the Nissan, killing Bell just hours before he was to be married.
Benefield and Guzman were shot as well. No gun was ever found.
Guzman says it was a miracle he wasn't killed.
"I've been through 37 surgeries, 15 blood transfusions. Just a long process," he says. "I was in the hospital for five months."
Now, after years of refusing to do many interviews or even participating in rallies and marches, Guzman is speaking out about his case and the tragic deaths of other blacks over the last year.
"In a way, I feel like I ran. I feel like I ran," Guzman says. "I've never ran from nothing in my life, but I feel like I ran in this situation."
Ran from New York to live in North Carolina. He says perhaps, he should have spoken out more about his story.
"I don't know if there'd have been a Mike Brown or Eric Garner if I'd have stood here and stayed to talk about it," he says.
"I don't know if I could have changed any of this that went on, but I feel like don't know if it would have been this many."
Officers involved in his shooting were found not guilty in a judge-only trial. Guzman is still upset about that verdict.
"I'm what injustice looks like, man," he says.
He says the kids of Sean Bell and Eric Garner know what he's feeling.
"They don't have their father no more. That's what injustice looks like," Guzman says.
Guzman still has police bullets in him. He walks with a limp because he has a metal rod in one leg. On the other leg, he wears a boot to support his foot.
Through all of the anger, though, he says he wants to try to bring about peace. He says police officers who are racist and brutal shouldn't be policing. He also says black-on-black crime must be addressed.
This summer, he hopes to use his Joseph Guzman Foundation to help set up basketball camps for young men in Queens and Newark.
"Give the kids something, and educate them on dealing with the police back and forth," he says. "I would even have the police come and talk to the people and help us out a little bit, tell us how we can make this better."
Making it better for the police and the community.