NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to soothe an upset community on Monday and said bluntly that officers appeared to use “excessive force” when an unarmed man was killed in a storm of police gunfire outside a strip club hours before his wedding.

“I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired, but that's up to the investigation to find out what really happened,” Bloomberg said at a news conference after meeting with elected officials and community leaders including the Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Charles Rangel.

The groom, Sean Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends were wounded Saturday at 4 a.m. after a bachelor party at the strip club. Suspecting that one of the men had a gun, the officers fired 50 rounds into the vehicle. The men were unarmed.

Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, told hip-hop radio station Power 105.1 on Monday that the people who shot her husband shouldn't be called officers.

“They were murderers, murderers,” she said. “They were not officers. No one gives anyone the right to kill somebody.”

As anger simmered in the community over the weekend, Bloomberg - who was reportedly out of town and had been in touch by e-mail and phone - invited local leaders to City Hall for a meeting with him and police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Sharpton called it a “very candid” meeting. He said the message to Bloomberg was: “This city must show moral outrage that 50 shots were fired on three unarmed men.” Some have also questioned whether the shooting was racially motivated - the victims were all black men and the five officers who fired their guns included two blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.

Of the victims, Bloomberg said Monday: “There is no evidence that they were doing anything wrong,” referring to everything leading up to the moment they struck an officer with their car.

For a mayor to question the actions of the officers and defend the shooting victims - while reaching out immediately to the grieving community - sets a decidedly different tone than in the past. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was hounded for what some viewed as a slow response to the killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the Bronx by four white officers. They were later acquitted of criminal charges.

The gunfire in the current case stemmed from an undercover operation inside the Kalua Cabaret, where seven officers in plain clothes were investigating alleged prostitution and drug use.

Kelly has said the groom was involved in an argument outside the club after 4 a.m., and one of his friends made a reference to a gun. An undercover officer walked closely behind Bell and his friends as they headed for their car. As he walked toward the front of the vehicle, they drove forward - striking him and an undercover police vehicle, Kelly said.

The officer who had followed the group on foot was apparently the first to open fire, Kelly said. One 12-year veteran fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said.

Bloomberg also said police 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.

Bloomberg was steadfast, however, in his support for Kelly, who has been denounced by some activists since the shooting.

The five officers were placed on paid administrative leave and had their guns removed while the investigation goes on.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Monday that his office was investigating the incident and the results would be presented to a grand jury. He said he had spoken with the mayor and police commissioner since the shooting and had met with Sharpton and Bell's parents and fiancee.

“I will be guided only by the law and the facts,” Brown said in a statement. “I will reach no conclusions until the investigation is complete. There will be no rush to judgment.”

Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, defended the officers' actions and said police were responding to the threat of the car.

“The amount of shots fired does not spell out excessive to me,” Palladino said.

The shooting has brought back memories of other police violence, particularly the 1999 killing of Diallo.

Giuliani's response in that case sparked protests nearly every day for weeks around City Hall, where demonstrators accused his administration of trampling the civil rights of blacks and Latinos.