By Calvin Palmer
An off-duty New York police officer was gunned down last night by a fellow officer while chasing someone who had broken into his car.
Omar J. Edwards, 25, died after he was shot within blocks of the Harlem police station where he worked.
The officer who fired the fatal shot was identified today as Officer Andrew Dunton, a 30-year-old Long Islander who has been on the job for more than four years, sources said.
Dunton is based at the 25th Precinct in Manhattan and, at the request of the district attorney’s office, has not been questioned about the killing.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Edwards had just gotten off work when he spotted a man going through his vehicle and began chasing him.
Officers in an unmarked police car saw the pursuit and followed. One of them jumped out of the car and fired six shots. Edwards was hit in the arm and the chest. He did not return fire.
Dunton is a white officer and Edwards was black.
Mayor Bloomberg said detectives were reviewing security and questioning the suspected thief Edwards was chasing with his gun drawn.
“The only thing that can come out of this is to improve procedures so perhaps it doesn’t happen again,” Bloomberg said.
“We all know policing is a dangerous job and accidents happen when people have guns in their hands, even legal guns in this case which they are authorized and trained to use.”
The Rev Al Sharpton called for a federal investigation to “sort out the facts”.
“Can police investigate themselves fairly and impartially?” he asked. “It would seem very difficult at best and unlikely in fact.”
It is unclear whether Edwards identified himself as a police officer when he turned, with a gun in his hand, to face Dunton.
Sources said Dunton had his shield out and was wearing the color of the day when he yelled to Edwards to drop his gun.
The police officer were not aware Edwards was also an officer until rescue crews cut open his shirt to stop the bleeding and saw a police academy shirt. They then searched his pockets and found his shield, sources said.
Investigators said the suspect Edwards was chasing, Miguel Santiago, was later apprehended. He has been arrested five times previously for assault, robbery, and drugs.
Edwards’ mother, Natalie Harding, said it was her son’s dream to be a police officer “ever since he was a little kid”.
She said he had just married his girlfriend, Danielle Glen, and they have two children – 18-month-old Xavier and seven-month-old Keanua.
Edwards’ father, Ricardo Edwards, 72, said: “If a police officer sees someone with a gun, you don’t just fire without asking questions or trying to apprehend the person. If the person was firing at a police officer, I understand.”
[Based on reports by the New York Daily News and Associated Press.]
