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NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― With outrage still simmering over the police killing last month of an unarmed man on his wedding day, the police department came under fresh scrutiny on Thursday over an arrest of a so-called witness, its undercover tactics and two new shootings in Brooklyn.

Larenzo Kinred, identified by his lawyer as a witness in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell on Nov. 25, was arrested for disorderly conduct on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan, police said. Kinred had earlier attended a downtown rally where hundreds of demonstrators protested the Bell shooting, said the lawyer, Charlie King.

The circumstances of the arrest were unclear, but King claimed that while trying to locate his 32-year-old client, police officials initially denied he was in custody.

"This is the latest example of accounts that have come to me of police misconduct," King said at a news conference.

King says he represents five men who witnessed the killing of Sean Bell, 23, and the wounding of two of his friends inside their car on Nov. 25 following his bachelor party at a Queens strip club where officers were conducting an undercover vice operation.

Officials have said an undercover officer began following Bell and his friends to the car after overhearing one of them threaten to retrieve a gun in a dispute with another man. As the car started to pull away, it bumped the officer and then smashed into an unmarked police van, police said.

The undercover officer has insisted, through his lawyer, that he believed one of the companions was pulling a gun when he opened fire on the car; no gun was found. But 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.

The five officers who fired a total of 50 rounds have been put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a grand jury investigation by the Queens district attorney's office.

Community activists have accused police of conducting a campaign of intimidation -- including raiding homes and making arrests on trumped up charges -- amid a search for new evidence that would solve the fourth man mystery.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly insisted on Thursday that investigators had handled the case professionally. The arrest of Kinred was coincidental, he added.

The arresting officers "had no knowledge of his involvement in the (Bell) case," he said.

The shooting and ensuing investigation have generated widespread outrage, especially among black New Yorkers. The victims were all black; two of the officers were black, two were white and one was Hispanic.

Kelly also rejected renewed calls by a fraternal organization, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, to suspend all undercover vice operations until reforms are in place. While undercover tactics were under review by a newly formed committee, the operations remain "essential" to combating gun possession, drug dealing and other crimes, he said.

On Thursday, police were investigating two separate shootings by officers -- the first since Bell's death. Both involved armed suspects, police said.

The first shooting occurred at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Brooklyn while plainclothes officers were arresting four robbery suspects. One of the suspects, Hasani Omari, was shot once after pulling a gun while trying to run away, police said.

Omari, 22, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was hospitalized in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the upper thigh, police said. He was charged with possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and menacing.

In the second shooting, also in Brooklyn, uniformed officers exchanged gunfire at about 1:30 a.m. with an unidentified man after he fired several rounds at a car, police said. The man ran away, but was found about 30 minutes later hiding in an apartment building with a bandaged arm. Police said they were searching for the suspect's weapon.

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