This case would appear to be a tragic accident for the NYPD, but how accidental is it REALLY? When it comes to minorities the police shoot first and ask questions later, so this wasn’t really an accident at all. It was the purposeful profiling of a black man and the killing of him. If the police had asked him to stop or gave him some verbal warning SURELY he would have complied…. but instead they shot him to death, smugly assuming that it would be another justified homicide.
NYPD officer killed by friendly fire
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6837950
EAST HARLEM (WABC) — Deadly case of mistaken identity strike the NYPD. An off-duty officer who was chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem is shot and killed by a fellow officer late Thursday night.
As you could imagine — a tremendous amount of chaos and confusion on Thursday night after the shooting.
The fatal shooting happened around 10:45 p.m. on East 125th Street, between First and Second Avenues in East Harlem.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a “sad night for the city, NYPD and all New Yorkers.”
Officer Omar J. Edwards, 25, had just gotten off of work. According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Edwards was in plain clothes — no longer wearing his bullet proof vest.
Edwards reportedly spotted a man rummaging through his car and went after him with his gun drawn.
Another group of plainclothes officers — an anti-crime unit — driving down 125th Street saw Edwards with his gun out near the entrance of RFK Bridge.
“When they observed Officer Edwards with his gun out…pursuing a second man, they made a U-turn on 125th Street and drove west towards the officers. After exiting the vehicle, the officer fired six times from his 9mm glock — striking Officer Edwards twice,” NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Kelly said the bullets struck Edwards in the arm and in the chest.
Mayor Bloomberg said Officer Edwards never fired his gun.
Commissioner Kelly said the terrible confusion of the moment had deadly consequences. Edwards is a black police officer and the officer who shot him is white.
He died Thursday night at 11:21 p.m. at nearby Harlem Hospital.
Officer Edwards’ car still remained on the scene Friday morning. Apparently, a thief was trying to get into his car through the window, causing the initial chase.
The officer who fired the fatal shots has been on force 4 and a half years.
More on Officer Omar Edwards
Officer Edwards was not only a police officer, he was a husband and a father of two young children. He and his family lived in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn.
His friends and family are very distraught by his tragic death.
The father-inlaw of the victim said, he died doing what he loved to do.
“It’s a terrible tragedy…a 25-year-old police officer dedicated his life to protect the rest of us is dead…there’s nothing we can say that will bring him back,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
Edwards was a member of housing bureau impact response team. He joined department in July of 2007.
“On behalf of the entire police department, I extend my condolences to the friends and family of Officer Edwards,” said commissioner Kelly.
Friends of Officer Edwards say he had just gotten married to his longtime girlfriend a month ago. Their two children are just 1-1/2 and seven months old.
The last New York City police officer killed in the line of duty was Russel Timoshenko. The 23-year-old officer was shot during a traffic stop in Brooklyn in July 2007.
Earlier in 2007, a gunman shot and killed two unarmed auxiliary police officers, Nicholas T. Pekearo, 28, and Yevgeniy Marshalik, 19, in Greenwich Village.
