Move over, Ambulance cop, New employee of the month!

[Trajan12]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/nyregion/30officers.html?ref=nyregion

Darkness and Gunshots Lead to Mistaken Death in Officers’ Encounter

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By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: May 29, 2009

Omar J. Edwards’s mother did not like the idea of her son becoming a police officer. But he joined the New York Police Department anyway, nearly two years ago.
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The Sequence of Events in the Police ShootingInteractive Graphic
The Sequence of Events in the Police Shooting
Related
Investigators Reviewing a Timeline of Seconds That Led to a Police Shooting (May 30, 2009)
Off-Duty Officer Is Fatally Shot by Police in Harlem (May 29, 2009)
City Room: A Troubling History of Officers Firing on Colleagues

Then he fell in love and married a woman whose father had been an officer in one of the tougher precincts in Brooklyn.

Officer Edwards, 25, like many new graduates of the Police Academy, had been assigned most recently to an Impact Response Team: new officers and seasoned supervisors who flood specific areas where there are spikes in crime.

On Thursday night, he was scheduled to work in Harlem from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., but he received permission to leave early, and did so shortly after 10 p.m.

Officer Andrew P. Dunton, 30, had been with the department for four and a half years. A raft of felony arrests had earned him a place on an anti-crime unit in Harlem’s 25th Precinct. He had never fired his weapon.

These two officers — early in their careers, fighting crime in a city that had become significantly safer than in decades past — encountered each other shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Both had guns in their hands. Neither was in uniform. And within a matter of seconds, they became the latest pairing in one of the most wrenching of police confrontations: Officer Dunton, mistaking Officer Edwards for a threat, shot him dead.

Police Department investigators and Manhattan prosecutors have begun what is likely to be an intensive investigation into what went wrong. According to the preliminary accounts, Officer Edwards, who was black, drew his weapon after encountering and racing after a man who was breaking into his car around the corner from the police station he worked from, on East 123rd Street; Officer Dunton, one of three white officers in an unmarked police car patrolling the neighborhood, saw him racing down the street with his pistol in the air, and emerged from the car to shout, “Police! Drop the gun.”

Officer Edwards, according to the account, turned to face his unwitting colleagues, his gun pointed their way. Several witnesses told the police that Officer Edwards never said a word. But one witness, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case, said Officer Edwards might have managed to begin to say one word — “Police.”

If history is a guide, a grand jury will consider possible charges against Officer Dunton. There will be calls for reform of procedures to better protect minority officers, who have most often paid the price for such cases of mistaken identity. And Officer Edwards and Officer Dunton will have their sad places in the latest chapter of a familiar police disaster.

As the investigation of the shooting got under way, little information emerged about Officer Dunton, who has been placed on administrative duty, and who has been assigned a lawyer by his union.

A police official said Officer Dunton, the son of Long Island schoolteachers and a former soccer player at Siena College, had made 104 arrests in his career, including 71 for felonies, several of them for gun possession.

In the minutes after the shooting, Emergency Service Unit officers arrived and began tending to Officer Edwards. After rolling him over and removing an outer shirt or jacket, they saw that he was wearing a Police Academy T-shirt and found his shield in his pocket, the police said.

When Officer Dunton learned that he had just fired on a fellow officer, he was shattered, said a person familiar with the accounts of the two officers who had been riding with him.

“He took this news very hard,” said the person. “The color drained from his face, he was shell-shocked, in disbelief. He was physically shaking. You never want to shoot your gun, and when you shoot your gun and find out it’s a guy on your own team, it’s devastating.”

In interviews with Officer Edwards’s friends and relatives, a picture emerged of a quiet but determined man, who had graduated from high school, taken some college courses, but then committed to the Police Department.

Officer Edwards’s father, Ricardo Edwards, said the police force had been his son’s dream since he was growing up in Brooklyn.

“He was that kind of boy and that kind of adult: He never got mixed up in any trouble, in anything bad,” Mr. Edwards said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...-05-28_black_cop_killed_by_white_officer.html

Black cop killed by white officer: Horror in East Harlem as off-duty rookie is shot pursuing suspect

BY Alison Gendar, Erica Pearson, Barry Paddock and Leo Standora
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, May 29th 2009, 12:32 PM

Keivom/News Police respond to scene in East Harlem on Thursday night where off-duty cop Omar Edwards was fatally shot by NYPD while in pursuit of carjack thief.

An off-duty rookie cop chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem with his gun drawn was shot and killed Thursday night when an officer mistook him for a criminal.
"Police! Stop! Drop it!" cops from the 25th Precinct shouted at Omar Edwards, 25.
As he started to turn toward him - the gun still in his hand - an officer opened fire, sources said.
The officer involved in the shooting is white, Edwards is black and had no visible NYPD identification on him, sources said. It was unclear if Edwards identified himself.
"This is always a black cop's fear, that he'd be mistaken for a [suspect]," a source said.
His father couldn't fathom how such a fatal mistake could happen.
"If a police officer sees someone with a gun, you don't just fire without asking questions or trying to apprehend the person," said Ricardo Edwards, 72. "If the person was firing at a police officer, I understand."
"It's a horror for everyone involved. No one comes out unscathed," a police source said.
One dejected cop said Edwards "just became a new father. He took some personal time so he could take the baby to North Carolina to meet his folks."
Edwards' mother, Natalia Harding, said her son had just married his girlfriend, Danielle Glen, last month at City Hall. They have two kids - 11/2-year-old Xavier and 7-month-old Keanua.
"I'm hurt that they took my son. That's my baby they took from me. And all I got was his last hug and kiss when he went to work [tonight] and he said, 'Ma, I'll see you when I come home,' " Natalia Harding said between sobs Friday morning at her Brooklyn apartment.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Edwards, who had been on the force less than two years and worked out of a Manhattan housing unit, had left work about 10:30 p.m.
He was in street clothes as he walked toward his car parked about a block away on Second Ave. between E. 124th and E. 125th St., where he saw Miguel Goitia rummaging through the vehicle. The driver's side window was busted out.
Edwards grabbed Goitia, who managed to slip out of his sweater and escape Edwards' grip, Kelly said.
Gun drawn, Edwards gave chase.
At the same time, three plainclothes officers in an unmarked car saw Edwards running down the street. The car made a U-turn, and one of the officers, a white cop with more than four years on the job, got out and fired six shots - hitting Edwards twice, once in the left arm and once in the chest, Kelly said.
Edwards did not fire his weapon.
Maalik Lane, 20, who was walking nearby, said suddenly he heard shots.
"More than five, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then there were just a lot of police blocking the streets."
Mayor Bloomberg, at a press conference at Harlem Hospital, said he expressed his sorrow to Edwards' wife.
"Nothing that you can ever say will bring back the deceased. He was there protecting the rest of us. We will find out what happened," Bloomberg said. "This is a tragedy. We'll see what we can learn from it."
Cops discovered Edwards was one of them when rescue crews cut open his shirt to treat the bleeding and saw a police academy shirt. They then searched his pockets and found his shield, sources said.
Investigators said the anti-crime cops arrested the car-theft suspect Goitia.
Edwards' mother said her son's dream was to be a cop.
"Ever since he was a little kid, he wanted to be a police officer. Something I didn't want, but it was his choice and he loved what he was doing. He loved helping other people," Harding said, noting she always worried about his safety.

Officer Edwards, according to the account, turned to face his unwitting colleagues, his gun pointed their way. Several witnesses told the police that Officer Edwards never said a word. But one witness, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case, said Officer Edwards might have managed to begin to say one word — “Police.”

 

[Formaldehyde]

"This is always a black cop's fear, that he'd be mistaken for a [suspect]," a source said.

After all, everybody knows that blacks who aren't cops are fair game...

 

[RalofTyr]

This happened in the Wire. A white cop shot a black plain clothes cop. The white cop was kind of a ******, like that pic of Dunton.

 

[Narz]

Well that sucks.

 

[Narz]

This happened in the Wire. A white cop shot a black plain clothes cop. The white cop was kind of a ******, like that pic of Dunton.

Holy crap, you weren't kidding, I almost laughed except this story is so tragic.

(from page 2)

 

[GoodGame]

After all, everybody knows that blacks who aren't cops are fair game...

Racist much? Or just cynical, much?

The problem here is protocol with cops undercover with guns drawn.
Un-uniformed people running across traffic with a gun drawn are suspicious. A suspect armed, turning towards a cop is fair-game to shoot. Hence the risk.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Racist much? .

Are you claiming the black cop who made this statement is also a 'racist'?

"This is always a black cop's fear, that he'd be mistaken for a [suspect]," a source said.

I just love irony, don't you?

The problem here is protocol with cops undercover with guns drawn.
Un-uniformed people running across traffic with a gun drawn are suspicious. A suspect armed, turning towards a cop is fair-game to shoot. Hence the risk.

I bet it wouldn't have happened if he was white...

 

[emzie]

Hindsight is 20/20. I feel pretty bad for officer Dunton.

 

[Yeekim]

I bet it wouldn't have happened if he was white...

Because white people who point their guns at cops getting shot are just unheard of?

 

[Patroklos]

Tragic, but I really can't see how these types of things can be avoided if we are going to allow police work in plain clothes.

I bet it wouldn't have happened if he was white...

Why don't you point a gun a cop and then tell us how it turns out.

 

[Aegis]

I don't think this case is nearly cut & dry (or B & W, take your pick) as the Ambulance Cop. I don't think I can fault the police for firing on an armed man who just pointed a gun at them.

I am in agreement with Patroklos. I doubt it would have made any difference if Edwards was white.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Because white people who point their guns at cops getting shot are just unheard of?

You might want to reread that story again. No cops were "getting shot" except the victom.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

This really isn't a case of ambulance cop.. the article makes it seem like a very bad mistake (or a bad guess). I'm all for reasonable and practical reform to avoid this problem in the future so the mistake doesn't happen again, but the only sinister stuff about all this is the imagined fiction that people will create about the cops involved.

 

[Aegis]

Because white people who point their guns at cops getting shot are just unheard of?

You might want to reread that story again. No cops were "getting shot" except the victom.

I believe he was making the point that white people who point guns at cops are likely to get shot, too.

What I believe you are saying is that Dunton is white and wasn't shot when he pointed his weapon at Edwards, who is a cop.

I find that faulty for two reasons:

1) Edwards could have given Dunton the benefit of the doubt and not fired.

2) Dunton already had his gun trained on Edwards before Edwards spun around and pointed his weapon at Dunton. If a cop shouts "STOP! Police!" and the suspect then points a weapon at the cop, that's very aggressive on the suspect's part.

It is notable that Dunton had never fired his weapon in the line of duty before this incident.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

It seems like a very unfortunate accident. Edwards should have probably flashed his badge instead of pointing his gun, he did hear "police!" from the uniformed cops. And Dunton probably shouldn't have fired a little too soon.

 

[Yeekim]

I believe he was making the point that white people who point guns at cops are likely to get shot, too.

This.

It is notable that Dunton had never fired his weapon in the line of duty before this incident.

And this. If true, that goes pretty far to show he was not just some trigger-happy fool willing to shoot anything that is black and moves.

 

[Patroklos]

What I believe you are saying is that Dunton is white and wasn't shot when he pointed his weapon at Edwards, who is a cop.

Remember that Dunton was in uniform. In friendly fire situations the right answer is not to return fire if you recognize it is friendlies shooting at you, that does not help at all.

 

[lovett]

Hindsight is 20/20. I feel pretty bad for officer Dunton.

Tragic, but I really can't see how these types of things can be avoided if we are going to allow police work in plain clothes.

Yeah, this. Tragic mistake but pretty understandable.

 

[cardgame]

Hmm, a mistake that is quite understandable made into the headlines because the victim was black, thus the mistaken officer is obviously racist. *sigh*

 

[RalofTyr]

Dunton reminds me of Sloth from the Goonies.