Davis's legal defense, led by William Kunstler, explained the raid as a pretense to murder Davis for knowledge of officers' alleged complicity in illicit drug sales and to punish him for abandoning his own drug dealing under them. In March 1988, on jury trial for a killing of four drug dealers—allegedly the 1986 raid's reason—Davis was acquitted. Then in November, as to the nine raiding and six shot officers, his acquittal of aggravated assault and attempted murder triggered widespread outrage. About 1,000 New York City police officers publicly demonstrated. Yet for many others, Davis became a folk hero. Still others thought him an unsavory character, but probably truthful about the police and the shootout.