Posted on 05/29/2009 4:58:41 AM PDT by Leisler
25-Year-Old Omar J. Edwards Died After Being Shot Within Blocks Of The Harlem Police Station Fatality Marks Force's First In The Line Of Duty Since 2007
A plainclothes policeman who drew his gun while chasing someone he had found rummaging through his car late Thursday was shot and killed by a fellow officer who was driving by and saw the pursuit, the police commissioner said.
Commissioner Raymond Kelly said 25-year-old Omar J. Edwards died after being shot within blocks of the Harlem police station where he worked.
Edwards had just finished his shift around 10:30 p.m. when he headed to his car and saw that the driver's-side window had been smashed and a man was going through the vehicle, Kelly said.
Edwards struggled with the man, who got away from him by slipping out of his sweater, Kelly said. Edwards chased the man up two streets with his gun drawn, he said.
A sergeant and two plainclothes officers in an unmarked police car saw the pursuit and made a U-turn to follow the men, Kelly said. One of the officers jumped out of the car and fired six times, hitting Edwards twice -- once in the arm and once in the chest, he said.
Kelly said Edwards did not fire his weapon. He died at the Harlem Hospital Center about an hour after the shooting.
It was unclear whether the officers identified themselves. The name of the officer who fired the shots has not been released, but Kelly said he had worked at the NYPD for four years.
The shooter was white and the victim was black.
"While we don't know all the details of what happened tonight, this is a tragedy. Rest assured that we will find out exactly what happened here, and we will learn from it so it doesn't happen again," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference from the hospital.
Kelly said Edwards was a two-year veteran of the NYPD and worked in the housing bureau. He was recently married and had two young children.
CBS 2 HD spoke with an unidentified neighbor of Edwards, who lived in Oceanhill, Brooklyn.
"We knew him from the block. Everyone knew him. We knew him growing up...I'm really sorry to hear that, he was a great guy."
Edwards was married and leaves behind two children.
Outside of domestic disputes, it's the first time a New York Police Department officer has been killed by a colleague since early 2006, when Alfredo Toro shot Eric Hernandez at a Bronx fast food restaurant.
Hernandez, who was dazed from a beating he had suffered, was shot after he refused orders to drop his weapon. Six people were charged with his beating.
In Jan. 25, 2008, a black, off-duty Mount Vernon police officer was killed by a Westchester County policeman while holding a gun on an assault suspect in suburban White Plains. A grand jury found the victim had failed to identify himself as an officer. County officers -- one white, one black and two Hispanic -- were cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Kelly were scheduled to hold a press conference to discuss the incident early Friday morning.
Prior to this incident, the last time an officer was killed in the line of duty was Russel Timoshenko back in 2007.
Lee Woods was sentenced to life in prison back in April for his role in the killing. A jury found the 31-year-old guilty in March in the death of Officer Timoshenko and the attempted murder of his partner, Herman Yan.
Woods and two others acted as a team to shoot the officers in 2007 after being caught with a stolen SUV. Yan was hit in the chest, but his bulletproof vest saved him.
Dexter Bostic received a life sentence plus 55 years for murder. Robert Ellis was convicted of weapons possession and sentenced to 15 years.
CBS 2 HD This Morning will have complete coverage starting at 5 a.m.
His fellow officers, now well reduced to an occupying army cramming down each and every idiotic rule for a pension.
More police, trained into not thinking by military reaction drills, and frankly, the blizzard of idiotic laws, rules, ordinances, codes that require someone to NOT think about what they are enForcing because that would drive them crazy, because it is crazy, so you switch off.
If this was reversed we would not hear this at all
Yeah poor fella, whatever happened to an off duty cop’s right to break into cars.
Can you read? Someone broke into HIS car. Duh.
>>”The shooter was white and the victim was black. “
>
>If this was reversed we would not hear this at all
Why is THIS mentioned but not the names?
Read first, then post.
It will help with that stupid post thingy...
Actually, New York City has gained population in almost every year since 1987 (1990 being an exception, I believe). Moreover, I only see the self-consciously sophisticated and reasonably affluent (though very liberal) moving into upper Manhattan, western Brooklyn, and NW Queens these days. The height of degeneration was from the early 1960s until the late 1980s.
This is gonna get really BIG...really fast.
I feel sorry for his family. Having dad gone forever is a tough thing. This isn’t how it turned out in the Eddie Murphy movies...
I didn’t say ‘decreasing’, although NYC hasn’t kept up with the US population growth. I was making a more local comment on him being in Harlem, or any place USA where the welfare state is entrenched.
I’ve read that Manhattan especially is losing its middle class. I don’t go to NY enough to have any personal feelings for demographics. Last time I was in midtown, a year ago, the city seemed fine, if not even boring. Police seemed plentiful.
Plenty of law-abiding citizens have been shot by police.
Some on their own property.
Since nothing comes of those, I expect the usual with this one.
Moreover, white births outnumber those of all other races in Manhattan, a trend that started at the beginning of the decade and continues.
The poor and the nonwhite (exception of Asians) are being pushed further into the Bronx and SE Brooklyn (think Canarsie) or out of the state altogether. The "middle class" (if we mean cops, teachers, low level civil servants who depend on taxpayer dollars to make a living) can't afford much of Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens anymore, so commute from the sticks (Orange County) or live in godforsaken places like Staten Island if still in the city.
You start off with a gross misreading, then a sarcastic comment, then come back with passive language and an ad-hominem.
You got low blood sugar or what?
I know when it started( no I don’t, but I like the idea) Anyways it was when Rockefeller bought/got/ the land the paper shuffling, international Yuppie class hot air factory of the UN. It used to be, so I was told, a nice productive brewery and light manufacturing, and hasn’t produce anything useful except tax money extraction and rewarding the priest class of modern leftists, UN beaurocrats.
It’s going to be hard for the usual apologist to paint the guy the usual gang banger, ‘perp’, scum that are usually painted upon someone.
I know that there is no corruption in the NYPD (</sarc>), but what if the victim was a straight up cop that wouldn’t play along with an under the table game? It happened to Frank Serpico.
Don't you just love when people who have probably never spent more than a few tourist days in NYC opine on the situation as if they have lived there their entire lives.
Running after someone with a firearm ? Plain clothes ?
I can imagine this. What I can’t really see is why an officer of the law, trained in martial arts (Yes, it’s a martial art.. Police officers are trained to subdue violence better than citizens) would pull a firearm against someone for breaking into their car.
A personal attack ? yes. Stealing your stuff ? No. Here is why I say this:
This is New York City. If you were to catch someone taking your things, you do NOT have the right to pull a firearm. You aren’t supposed to even stop them. You are supposed to call the police and be a “good little victim”. By creating an elite citizen (an officer off-duty) we have created a problem where an on-duty cop can not tell the difference between a plain-clothed cop and a citizen.
This is a tragedy. I am also very concerned for the unique double-standard here. This guy can use a firearm to defend his possessions, but not the rest of the populace ? I take issue.
Armed Government employees, shooting the wrong guy since 1865.
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