HollyMatkinShawangunk, NY – A violent member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), who brutally murdered three police officers in two separate incidents, has been granted parole.
The BLA, a radical, violent offshoot of the Black Panthers, attacked and murdered police officers indiscriminately in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
They were responsible for the murders of at least 10 officers, and launched nationwide attacks that injured many more.
Herman Bell, 70, was one of three murderers who used a bogus 911 call to lure New York Police Department (NYPD) Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini into an ambush in 1971, the New York Post reported.
Officer Jones was shot in the head, and died instantly, according to the New York Daily News.
Bell and his fellow BLA cohorts, Anthony Bottom and Albert Washington, ruthlessly tortured Officer Piagentini as he told his assailants that he had a wife and two children, and begged for his life.
The trio shot Officer Piagentini 22 times. Bell used the officer’s duty weapon to fire the fatal round, FOX News reported.
According to the San Francisco Gate, the men then traveled to California, where Bell, Herman, and five other BLA members carried out an attack on the Ingleside District Police (IDP) station.
The men entered the station, shoved a shotgun barrel through an opening that separated the waiting area from the rest of the office, and fired between five and 10 rounds, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
IDP Sergeant John Young was murdered in the attack, and a civilian employee was injured.
Bell and Herman fled the scene.
Bottom later told investigators that he had planned the attack, but that he was not able to participate, because he had been arrested the day prior as he attempted to murder San Francisco Police Sergeant George Kowalski, the San Francisco Gate reported.
Sgt. Kowalski’s life was spared only because Bottom’s weapon jammed.
Bell was apprehended in 1973 in relation to the officers’ murders.
In 1975, charges leveraged against him in Sgt. Young’s murder were dropped, after evidence indicated that Bell’s confession may have been the result of torture, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Bell was convicted for the murders of Officer Jones and Officer Piagentini in 1979, and was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2009, after new forensic evidence surfaced in Sgt. Young’s murder, Bell was convicted of manslaughter and conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter.
For decades, Bell insisted that he was a political prisoner, and that he had been framed for the officers’ murders, the New York Post reported.
His requests for parole had been denied by the board on seven occasions since 2004, on the grounds that his release would “deprecate the severity of this crime,” according to the New York Post.
Bell’s eighth attempt was successful, however.
Officer Piagentini’s widow, Diane, learned of the board’s decision after the fact.
“We are angered and sickened that this horrible person, who was devoid of any human compassion or empathy when he continued to shoot my already wounded husband, Joseph, while he pleaded for his life for the sake of his family, will now be free to walk out of prison,” she told the New York Daily News.
On Thursday, New York Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan demanded that Governor Andrew Cuomo remove the members of the parole board who authorized Bell’s release.
“Herman Bell is a callous and depraved cop-killer who took the lives of two police officers just because they wore the uniform,” Flanagan told the New York Post. “He has forfeited his ability to live outside of the four walls of a prison cell.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch expressed similar outrage in a statement to the New York Post.
“There are no words to express our anger and disgust that they have granted release to a cold-blooded cop killer who successfully gamed the system in two states to win his freedom,” Lynch declared.
“Herman Bell, who committed the most barbarous and heinous crimes in killing three police officers and who showed absolutely no compassion to Joe Piagentini, who pleaded for his life saying he had two small daughters, should have never been granted parole,” he continued.
“We are disgusted, offended and extremely angry with this parole board’s decision,” Lynch added.
Former Parole Board Chairman Bob Dennison, who led the panel from 2004 until 2007, said that the board made a “bad decision.”
“I’m shocked,” said Dennison, who currently advocates for inmates. “A cop killer like this should never be released. This was a cold-blooded killing of a uniformed officer.”
Bell’s lawyer, Robert Boyle, argued that the cop-killer had earned his freedom.
“He has satisfied all the criteria for parole, he has expressed remorse, he has an unblemished prison record and he’s been extremely involved in helping others inside,” Boyle told the New York Daily News. “It is only correct that the Parole Board apply the law in this controversial case and granted him parole and we are gratified they did so.”
Bell said he would not make a statement about his parole “out of respect for the victims and their families,” Boyle added.
The cop killer is expected to walk out of prison in April.