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Nov 27, 2006 8:21 am US/Eastern
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Groom Shot By Police Made Sacrifices For Family
QUEENS (CBS/AP) ―
Sean Bell was just 23 when he died, but those close to him said he had already made some mature sacrifices.
Bell had a promising run as star pitcher for his Queens high school, and he hoped to pursue a baseball career. But when his high school girlfriend, Nicole Paultre, discovered she was pregnant, he put aside those dreams, said Kinglarry Crawford, a cousin.
"He would have signed professionally," said Bishop Lester Williams, who had planned to marry the couple Saturday. "He gave up all that baseball and everything to be with his high school sweetheart."
Hours before the wedding, the unarmed man was felled by a hail of police gunfire as he left his bachelor party, a shooting that has prompted outraged protests from family members and members of the community. Williams instead found himself leading a service to mourn Bell's death.
Williams, pastor of the Community Church of Christ in Queens, recalled the young man's eagerness to marry.
"He was so sure, he wanted to sign the marriage license right then," Williams said of his final meeting with the couple before the ceremony. "He was in a hurry to get this thing done."
In retrospect, the pastor said, he regrets having waited.
Distraught in the hours after her fiance's death, Paultre also was consumed by regret, Williams said, calling the minister to ask if he could somehow still legally marry them.
"We can't do it," the pastor said he told her. "I'm sorry."
After Paultre became pregnant, Bell moved in with her and her parents, working odd jobs and staying in shape, harboring hopes of eventually returning to playing ball, Crawford said. The couple began planning a wedding, and a move to Atlanta, where her parents were planning to help them buy a house.
Instead, the family was left to try to explain to the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Jada, what had happened to her father. The couple's second daughter, 5-month-old Jordyn, is too young to understand.
Williams said that Bell recently comforted the girl about the death of a puppy, telling her, "When you see the sun, that's the puppy."
"We had to tell her, 'Daddy is taking care of the puppy. Look up and say hi to Daddy,"' Williams said.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)