New York City ? An unarmed man killed in his car on his wedding day by police officers who unleashed a 50-shot barrage was drunk behind the wheel, law enforcement officials said Friday.

It was unclear whether the finding – contained in a toxicology report turned over to prosecutors – would have any bearing on a potential criminal case against the officers. But it reconfirmed that alcohol was an element of a case already complicated by much ballistic evidence, conflicting eyewitness accounts and community outrage.

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed, said Sean Bell’s blood had tested well above the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol limit in New York. One put his reading at “double the legal limit.”

A police union official suggested Friday that Bell’s intoxication could bolster the officers’ defense. But an attorney for the victim’s family dismissed the finding as “totally irrelevant.”

Bell, 23, was killed the morning of Nov. 25 after his bachelor party at Kalua Cabaret.