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NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called the 50-shot barrage that police used to kill an unarmed man "unacceptable," "inexplicable" and a case of "excessive force."

But experts who have studied deadly force say the confusing circumstances of the shooting near a Queens strip club make the mayor's conclusions this week premature. The amount of firepower, they add, has been given too much emphasis.

"The number of shots fired doesn't mean anything, even though it seems a little shocking," Jim Cohen, a professor of criminal law at Fordham Law School, said Tuesday. "We simply don't have enough information to draw any conclusions."

The five shooters -- four detectives and one police officer -- have so far remained silent amid a district attorney investigation of the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell, though lawyers and union officials have said at least some of them are eager to give their side of the story to a grand jury. All five were placed on paid administrative leave and had their guns removed while the investigation goes forward.

"We're going to be forced to look at this through their eyes," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice. "Short of hearing what they have to say, we don't know much."

Also absent are the accounts of two key witnesses: Two men who were partying at the club with Bell on the eve of his wedding before getting caught in the hail of gunfire aimed at the groom's car. Joseph Guzman, 31, shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, hit three times, have remained hospitalized.

Police officials on Tuesday said that detectives had located a new witness who apparently saw the officers open fire. They also were trying to identify more potential witnesses by studying video recorded by a security camera at the entrance of Kalua Cabaret.

The gunfire on Saturday morning stemmed from an undercover operation inside the club, where a team of officers in plain clothes was investigating alleged prostitution and drug use.

Police said that the groom was involved in an argument outside the club after 4 a.m., and that one of his friends made a reference to a gun.

An undercover detective followed Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, they drove forward -- bumping him and then crashing into an undercover police minivan, police said.

The detective shot first before the others joined in, police said. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, meaning he paused to reload his 16-shot semiautomatic pistol.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg went to the Queens church frequented by the Bell family, where he met for about an hour with the parents and fiancee of the groom, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The mayor held a similar meeting Monday at City Hall in which he declared that officers appeared to use "excessive force." He stood by his comments Tuesday.

"I am a civilian. I am not a professional law enforcement officer," he said. "I used the word excessive and that's fine. That was my personal opinion."

But union officials familiar with the officers' account say that the undercover detective was convinced there was a gun in the car. They also allege that Bell defied orders to stop, and used the vehicle as a weapon.

"It's nighttime, it's a very tense situation, the officers are there for a reason, there's a mention of a gun, a car comes toward one officer and chaos occurs," Cohen said. "The stress level is tremendous."

Bloomberg has said the shooters appeared to have violated the policy stating that officers cannot shoot at a vehicle being used as a weapon if no other deadly force is involved.

But Maki Haberfeld, another John Jay professor and specialist in the use of deadly force, said she believes that "if the officer was struck by the car on purpose, to me the shooting was justified."

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)