Posted on 10/06/2012 5:58:50 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
Detective Hassan Hamdy made the split-second decision to fire a single fatal shot at an unarmed motorist during an early morning traffic stop on a highway in Queens because he thought the driver was reaching for a gun, according to the detective’s lawyer.
The driver, Noel Polanco, 22, did not comply with Detective Hamdy’s orders to put his hands up, instead reaching “down in a quick motion, down on the floor of the car,” said lawyer Philip Karasyk, representing the detective.
Detective Hamdy twice yelled “Police!” and was wearing a heavy vest with the word “police” written across it, Mr. Karasyk said. “At that point my guy fires, thinking he has a gun,” Mr. Karasyk said in an interview Saturday night. “If this guy had kept his hands up or on the wheel, we wouldn’t be here. Had not for this person reaching down, lunging for the floor and not complying with orders to show his hands, we wouldn’t be here.”
(snip)
Mr. Polanco was driving on the Grand Central Parkway just after 5 a.m. on Thursday when he was pulled over by uniformed members of the Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit, who were riding in unmarked vans. They said that he had twice cut them off.
Mr. Karasyk said officers activated lights and sirens and yelled at Mr. Polanco to pull over, but he sped up and continued driving, which escalated the officers’ level of alertness.
“He was a danger to other motorists on the road,” Mr. Karasyk said. "They actually had to box him in and pull him over.”
(snip)
Toxicology tests, administered after the shooting, showed no drugs or alcohol in Detective Hamdy’s system, police said.
“He is a squared-away guy. He doesn’t drink. He takes no drugs. He is on no medications whatsoever,” Mr. Karasyk said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Oh boy, you just know the FReeper cop haters will be here soon.
All he does is kill people. And at that, as Mr.Polance can attest to, he is very efficent.
My daughter is just learning to drive and is a danger to motorists sometimes...I hope she doesn’t get executed like this guy.
An earlier news story said that he didn’t put his hands up because he had them on the steering wheel, after coming to a stop. This one now says that he reached down toward the floor. So, which was it?
I guess this will depend upon which version is true, and whether there is any evidence to back it.
Which part of “ no sudden moves and keep your hands in plan sight” didn’t he understand?
Is that what the cop actually said?
Given the NYPD’s record, one has probable cause to doubt it.
Both, possibly.
Not everybody drives with their hands at "10 and 2".
Some drive with one hand (or both) on the lower half of the wheel.
I was on the guys side until Sharpton stepped in.
Now the truth will be difficult to find.
I hope she doesn't hurt anybody in my family.
Ma’am, I was leaning in your direction ‘til I saw your photo with Sharpton.
If the officer shot they guy as the witness said, he needs to be prosecuted, just like any other criminal.
/johnny
Noel Polanco; New York Post
Given that the police, all across the country, have been shooting first then asking questions, there is plenty of reason to doubt the officer’s side of things.
yeah...since when is reaching down a crime or even a threat? He probably was reaching for his wallet as I used to when I kept mine under my car seat. I am sickened by all of these stories of unionized , trigger happy and BAD under pressure cops..all paid by the U S taxpayer.
yeah heaven forbid American citizens should be outraged at the murder of this young man.
True.
Look on the bright side of this tragedy: At least no dogs were killed.
Yet.
The cop gets as much benefit of doubt as john Q. Public does.
Actually history shows they as a whole deserve less.
Why was only one round fired? If the cop truly thought there was a threat he should have kept firing.
Why were the cops approaching a traffic stop with their guns drawn?
It seems like Islamic Terrorism by NYPD !Tourism should end until Kelly fires these terrorists.
If it had been the cop who died, there would have been no thread on FR.
It amazes me how many there are. The cop is always the power-mad brazen killer and the dead "victim" is always the good guy who wuzzint doin nuttin. Every single time. They believe the liberal Democrat newspapers who have acccess ONLY to the dead guys and their families along with alleged neighborhood "witnesses" who always claim the dead guy wuzzint doin nuttin.
That is an excellent point.
Bingo all these people defending these cops on freerepublic are getting boring. All we read anymore is a cop shot a dog, a cop shot a old man because they got the wrong house in a raid. Cop shoots teenager for reaching under his seat. People who call us police haters are just police enablers.
The victim Noel Polanco served in the military. Additionally, there was an off-duty copy in the back seat of Polanco’s car who initially confirmed what the passenger, Diane Deferrari, has been saying - namely that the Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel when he was shot. Now the off-duty copy has changed her story and is apparently saying she was asleep when Polanco was shot.
We all hope so, too. Just teach her to keep her hands visible and follow instructions, and she will be fine.
I'm not a LEO, but, if some punk who had already threatened me (with his vehicle) pulled a "go for it" move like that, my reaction would quite possibly have been deadly, too...
Now it may be the po-po's.
What was it...”police road rage” or “police ‘roid rage”?
My first thought was that he was probably just stashing his drugs under the seat and out of sight, just like any fleeing, speeding, reckless driver would if he finally got boxed in by lights-flashing, sirens-blaring cop vans and forced to pull over at 5:00 in the morning. I mean, sheesh... He gets shot for that?
Amazes me how so called conservatives will excuse the abuses of power time after time.
I don’t know that the cop said anything but when i am stopped I shut the car off, roll down the window and stick both hands out in plain sight
i am not a cop hater. i do believe that “cops” should be under the same laws as anyone else.
you kill someone that has both his hands on the steering wheel without a weapon with several other “peace officers” around him that didn’t see a threat, should cause a pause.
watching andy griffith show when i was but a child, he was a “peace officer”.
now we have “law enforcement officers”. that has benefited us immensely.
murder is murder even if a law enforcement officer does it.
of course, anybody in the government should be exempt from laws imposed on us common citizens.
blessings, bobo
This sounds like an assassination or terrorism under color of law. shot the un-armed driver from the passenger side window.
Joel Polanco -NYTimes.
Actually, it sounds like the killer and the victim deserve each other.
And the cop groupies.
Joel Polanco -Facebook
I hope the cops don’t shoot anybody in your family.
Sure you do. And that gives you the privilege of making up imaginary "facts" as to what happened and what was said on a NYC freeway at six in the morning one day. Got it.
“Given the NYPD’s record, one has probable cause to doubt it”
—
What exactly is the NYPD’s record? I wasn’t aware they had any more problems than any other PD.
.
This Hamby guy looks like he could have both.
Your theory did not work in this case. When Hassan (arab?) ran from the unmarked van and shot the unarmed driver, the driver had his hands on the steering wheel -- that was the original testimony of a cop at the scene.
A lot of "law-and-order" conservatives are really Statists, and they do not realize it.
aka small “f” freepers.
No you don’t get it. I made nothing up. I merely stated what you must to to protect yourself. Cops are nervous people, you need to respect that
The most recent scandal to erupt is the ticket-fixing scandal:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/the-nypds-ticket-fixing-scandal.html
And in shootings, they NYPD is known for their excessive round count. I guess the beat officers got a memo that said “reloading your hi-cap pistol on an already dead guy ain’t cool.”
NYPD has been one of the most corrupt forces for decades. Another one that is manifestly corrupt is Las Vegas Metro. After that, LA, New Orleans, Chicago, etc. Saying that “everyone does it” isn’t an affirmative defense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.