Off-duty NYPD cop fatally shot by fellow officer

Police conduct an investigation on 125th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues after NYPD officials say an off-duty cop was mistaken for a criminal and fatally shot by a fellow officer.

An off-duty police officer chasing a man who had broken into his car was shot and killed in East Harlem Thursday night by a plainclothes officer who thought he was an armed criminal, police said.

The shooting appears to be a classic case of friendly fire, and it seems likely to raise the thorny issue of race: Officer Omar Edwards, 25, a recently married father of two, was black, and the officer who shot him was white.

Police sources identified the officer who shot Edwards as Andrew Dunton of Ridge.

Edwards, a two-year veteran who worked in the housing bureau, patrolling projects, was in street clothes and had his gun drawn as the chased the suspect, Miguel Santiago, along East 125th Street, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said early Friday.

Officers who tended to him after he was shot didn't know he was a police officer until they opened his shirt and saw he was wearing a Police Academy T-shirt, a police source said. His badge was in his pocket.

The officer who fired the six shots at Edwards is a four-year veteran assigned to the 25th Precinct anti-crime team. There were conflicting accounts about whether that officer or others with him - all dressed in plainclothes - identified themselves as police officers or told Edwards to drop his gun.

The police source said the anti-crime team was responding to a 911 call - possibly from Edwards himself - about the break-in.

"On behalf of the entire department, I extend deepest condolences to the family and friends of Officer Edwards," Kelly said at Harlem Hospital, where the fallen officer died at 11:21 p.m. "We are in the process of interviewing officers and the sergeant from the anti-crime team, as well as Santiago, the individual who we believe broke into Officer Edwards' car, to get a fuller picture of what transpired."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was also at the hospital and spoke to Edwards' wife, promised a full investigation.

"Nothing that you can ever say will bring back the deceased,'' Bloomberg said early Friday. "He was there protecting the rest of us. We will find out what happened. This is a tragedy.

"We'll see what we can learn from it.

Here's how the shooting unfolded, according to Kelly:

Edwards left his command, Public Service Area 5 - on East 124th Street - just before 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

He was done with his shift and was walking toward his car, which was parked on 2nd Avenue, just north of East 124th Street, when he saw Santiago, "rummaging through his car after having smashed the driver side window to gain entry."

"The officer struggled with Santiago, who escaped by slipping out of his sweater," Kelly said. "We believe at this point, Officer Edwards, with his gun drawn, chased the individual north to 125th Street and then east toward 1st Avenue."

Edwards had his 9-mm drawn when he was spotted by the anti-crime team - a sergeant and two officers - driving east on East 125th Street, between 1st and 2nd avenues, in an unmarked car.

"When they observed Officer Edwards with his gun out, pursuing a second man, they made a U-turn on 125th Street and drove west toward them," Kelly said.

One of those officers, Kelly said, got out of the car and fired the six shots, one bullet hitting Edwards in the left arm, one striking him in the chest. Edwards, having finished work for the night as he headed home to Brooklyn, was not wearing his bullet-resistant vest.

The officer who fired his gun did not make any statements at the scene, and the NYPD, as per policy, did not interview him because the Manhattan district attorney is first trying to determine if the case should be presented to a grand jury.

Santiago, Kelly said, has prior arrests for drugs, assault, robbery, criminal trespass and bail jumping.

On his weekly radio show Friday morning, Bloomberg said the investigation is early and part of the probe will be reviewing any security tape and interviewing witnesses who the mayor said were present "from a distance and at night.

"The bottom line is Omar Edwards is gone," Bloomberg said. He later added, "Something went horribly wrong...(it) was not a premeditated shooting by any means."

Kelly has repeatedly said the NYPD is the nation's most diverse police force and that its patrol force is comprised mostly of minority officers.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said the probe into the Edwards shooting should not depend on New York police investigators.

"This calls for federal investigation and intervention to sort out the facts and bring about a just resolve," he said in a statement Friday morning. "Can police investigate themselves fairly and impartially? It would seem very difficult at best and unlikely in fact."

Friendly fire cases have made big headlines in recent years, most famously in the 1994 case involving Officer Desmond Robinson and Peter Del-Debbio.

Robinson, who is black, was on duty and chasing two youths suspected of having guns, when he was shot four times in back by Del-Debbio, who is white, inside the Lexington Avenue subway station at East 53rd Street.

Del-Debbio, who was off-duty and heading home, put on his badge, pulled his gun and sprung into action when he saw one of the suspects drop a shotgun.

Mistaking Robinson for a gunman, Del-Debbio shot him from about 6 to 8 feet away, and was charged with assault.

He was convicted, sentenced to probation and fired. Robinson, meanwhile, forgave Del-Debbio, retired on a disability pension and settled a lawsuit against the NYPD and the city for $3 million.

In 1998, Sgt. Dexter Brown was shot in the back by Sgt. Louis Lopez and badly wounded during a buy-and-bust drug operation in Brooklyn.

The city has offered varying accounts of what happened. Brown suffered permanent damage and was forced to retire. His $31 million lawsuit is still pending.

Three years ago, another cop, Officer Eric Hernandez, 24, was shot dead in the Bronx by a fellow officer, Alfredo Toro, while responding to a 911 call about a fight at a White Castle restaurant.

At the time of that shooting, Newsday interviewed Robinson, who talked about how each friendly fire case makes him realize how lucky he was to have survived his shooting.

He also suggested fate plays a role in police work.

"There are many officers who can go 20 years without even pointing their weapons," he said. "It's hard to say who is going to be the guy who is lucky enough or unlucky enough to even be involved in a shooting."