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by John Slattery
QUEENS (CBS/AP) ― Investigators from the Queens District Attorney's office Monday conducted bedside interviews of Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, who were injured by police bullets when their friend Sean Bell was killed on Nov. 25, what was to have been Bell's wedding day.

The two survivors, who are recuperating at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, spoke to investigators for a couple of hours, according to sources close to the case.

The attorney for the two injured men confirmed it. Benefield and Guzman, who both suffered multiple gunshot wounds, "have begun their cooperation with the Queens district attorney's office," said attorney Sanford Rubenstein.

The men were expected to help answer two key questions about the perplexing case: Was there a fourth man, perhaps armed, in or near the car with the others when the first of five officers opened fire, and did that officer identify himself?

Rubenstein said his clients claim the answers are no and no -- "unequivocally" -- a response that contradicts accounts provided by police lawyers and union officials.

Through his lawyer, the initial shooter has insisted he had his badge out and had identified himself when, believing Guzman was pulling a gun, he opened fire. He and other witnesses also have said there was a fourth man in or near the car who escaped on foot, possibly with a weapon.

At the same time Monday, police union officials were urging prosecutors to be impartial in their investigation of the deadly police shooting.

The Queens DA's office will decide whether to bring criminal charges in the case.

Patrick Lynch, President of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said there is a lot of misinformation about the case -- and he stressed that prosecutors should not allow that to become fact.

"What we have to be careful of is that fiction in the street doesn't become fact in the court room. That's our concern," Lynch said.

"Our police officers who pulled the trigger that day were put in a terrible situation. They have not been interviewed yet."

What did witnesses hear at the time of the shooting? Standing steps away as police let loose a torrent of gunfire on a car full of unarmed men, onlookers heard the officers pause for several seconds, and then begin shooting again, the witnesses' lawyer said.

Between two and six witnesses spent four hours Sunday telling assistant district attorneys in Queens "everything they saw and heard" about the Nov. 25 shooting, lawyer Charlie King said.

The witnesses told prosecutors and their investigators that they never heard undercover police identify themselves as officers and didn't see them display badges, King said as he stood outside the Queens courthouse.

King said his clients told the prosecutors and investigators that they heard a "barrage of shots" followed by a pause of two to five seconds and then "another barrage of shots."

Five undercover detectives and officers fired a total 50 shots outside the strip club, Kalua Cabaret, police have said. Before the shooting, Bell's vehicle hit one officer and an unmarked police car, and officers apparently thought one of Bell's companions was about to get to a gun, police have said. No gun has been found.

King, a former Clinton administration housing official, wouldn't say exactly how many witnesses met Sunday out of fear they might be mistreated or harassed by police. He accused police of "creating a climate of fear among people who may want to come forward" with information and of "witness intimidation."

He said his clients witnessed the moments leading up to the shooting, the shooting itself or its aftermath. He said each of them was "25 to 40 feet" from Bell's car during the shooting.

One of the clients, Jean Nelson, who attended the meeting, was a "direct eyewitness" to the shooting, King said.

On Thursday, police pulled Nelson "off the street to question him against his will" and against King's advice, the attorney said. Nelson was later released, King said.

Police spokesman Paul Browne released a short statement Sunday that said, "Any information secured by the police department's Internal Affairs Bureau, including descriptions provided by witnesses, has been obtained in a professional and appropriate manner and turned over (to) the Queens district attorney."

At the news conference, King held up a black leather jacket with a fur-trimmed hood that he said Nelson was wearing the night of the shooting. The jacket proves Nelson can't be a fourth man police claim ran from the scene in a beige or tan jacket, King said.

"What Mr. Nelson and others also relayed to the Queens district attorney's office is that neither he nor any of the other eye witnesses to the shooting -- other than the three individuals who were in the car -- were close enough to the car to be considered the quote fourth man who was seen running from" the car, King said.

"No one was close enough to be considered a fourth man, but several of the witnesses were close enough to have a clear view of what happened that night."

Before the shooting, King said, undercover officers allowed a man who had exchanged heated words with members of Bell's bachelor party to leave.

During the argument, the man had his hand in his pocket, leading members of Bell's party to believe he had a gun, King said.

Police allowed the man to "drive off in his car unimpeded ... moments before the shooting," King said.

King said he had "serious concerns about what the police are doing and how they're conducting their own parallel investigation."

"My concern is that the Queens District Attorney's Office, possibly even the mayor, may be overmatched for certain police officers at a local precinct level who are hell-bent on conducting an investigation that seems to be at odds with what the Queens District Attorney is trying to accomplish," he said.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown didn't attend the meeting, in which the witnesses did not give information under oath, King said.

Meanwhile, the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care on Sunday called for a special prosecutor in the case to protect the integrity of the investigation. Brown's office released a statement saying there was no basis for such an appointment.

Bell, who was to be married the day he was killed, was buried Saturday.

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