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.
Not 'depopulating'. Different word, way way different meaning.
Anyways, the same dynamics in NY are, have happened in most major cities, the rise of the leftist through the institutions, coupled with as Clemenza pointed out, Lindsey, and I, with Rockefeller Republican liberal RINO's and the flight of any populations core cadre of the middle class.
And, in case you hadn't notice, this is a site for nothing but opinion, and I think New York can take one more.
Why did they shoot him, was he threatening the other officers, or was it because he had a gun?
This is a working theme of mine. The laws are irrational. So who would work to enforce irrational laws? Irrational people, or people who either by nature, or occupational adaptation turn off independent thought and become bureaucratic automatons.
So, you have some place in America where, I suppose, some sort of special uber citizen has guns and can defend himself and property just fine. Then for some reason, New Yorkers are mentally, morally, or physically not able to do this, and laws have been implemented to protect them from themselves.
How the NYPD recruits from this weird population, with this weird gun disease, and then by some magic makes them gun capable, escapes me.
Of course the above is all bunk, and up until the rise of leftist, Marxist era Progressives, just before the turn of the 1900’s, New Yorker had plenty of guns, and were, by order of magnitude a much poorer population, from all over of different ‘cultures’ and with out the modern ID’s and every other clutter of the modern security bureaucracy.
So, we have irrational politicians, making irrational laws, that you must either be irrational or mentally shut down to enforce.
And, this is good exactly how?
Dark, black man running with gun, late at night( three strike right there), and anti-thought, designed, military style shoot don’t shoot drills that pattern a person to shoot.
Mix, shake, get outcome. Shooting officer alive first and foremost.
I’m not sure that when you look at the system, the design, the planning, training of the Police, that anything was done wrong.
I’ve always said, that upon careful inspection we are all criminals now. Now, the shooting officer will be gone through and some fault will be found on him, not the system. Maybe not. I’m sure the NYPD union knows the in’s and outs of the Rabbinical hairsplitting, mindboggling, irrational rules that officers are under and will find a loophole.
It’s the paper shuffling, rule churning, law dumping, code enforcing, ordinance mountains, lawyer spawning dysfunctional world we live in.
Idiotic palaver by the crypto Marxist, Hero of the Trans Fat/Smoking Wars.
No one finds out 'exactly' what happens. It will happen again because people are people. Yet more rules, more regs, more layers upon layers....
My pro-gun argument tends to hinge upon evidence (No.. PROOF) that firearm ownership, appropriate and easily available training as well as issue-awareness CREATES a better citizen.
Never before have I been more aware of the world of defense, laws, morality and good-manners as I had after being given basic NRA approved firearms training. It’s made me a nicer person. And still, some of the nicest people can be found at gun stores and shooting ranges.
Um..
Texas, the South, have reputations for old time courtesy, and have lots of guns.
New Yorkers are thought to be rude and have, basically, no guns.
“Yeah and I was going to say I re read it and found my error before some moron without manners asked me if I knew how to read.”
If you make a mistake, it’s more than ironic for you to call the people who corrected you morons. Better to say “oops I made a mistake”, or at least nothing at all.
Mind your own business. I’m not the one who spouted “can you read”.
And he/she is not the one who completely misread the article, therby opening him/herself up to some as should be expected ribbing. Time to lighten up or risk creating another epic thread which will be referenced for years to come.
Since when do you get to shoot a guy running away from you?
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