New York police braced themselves today for a violent reaction after three officers were acquitted of all charges over the killing of an unarmed man on his wedding day.

Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper were cleared over the shooting of Sean Bell as he left his stag night party on November 25, 2006.

He was killed outside a strip club in Queens as he left with two friends. Fifty shots were fired.

Shouts of "No!" and "Not guilty!" erupted in the crowd outside the courthouse as word of the verdict spread. Some people wept on each other's shoulders.

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Isnora and Oliver faced the most serious charge of manslaughter.

Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict, said many of the prosecution's witnesses, including Mr. Bell's friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable.

"At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn't make sense," he said.

His verdict prompted several supporters of Mr Bell to storm out of the courtroom, and screams could be heard in the hallway moments later.

The three detectives were escorted out of a side doorway. Outside, a crowd gathered behind police barricades.

The verdict comes 17 months to the day since the November 25, 2006, shooting of 23-year-old Mr Bell, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, outside the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens.

It was delivered in a packed courtroom and was heard by the dead man's parents and his fiancée.

The seven-week trial was heard by Justice Cooperman after the defendants waived their right to a jury, a strategy some lawyers called risky at the time.

Justice Cooperman ran through what happened on the night of the killing, and concluded: "The police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal."

He added: "The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified in shooting."

Mr Bell's family sat silently as Justice Cooperman spoke from the bench. Behind them, a woman was heard to ask: :Did he just say, 'Not guilty?'"

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for calm. He said: "There are no winners in a trial like this.

"An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son."

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