Police probe after cop kills off-duty colleague

A New York policeman is facing an investigation after shooting dead a rookie officer he thought was a criminal.

The rookie was shot while running through a desolate stretch of Harlem with a gun in his hand.

But when paramedics arrived and cut through the bloodied clothes, officers realised the man handcuffed and dying in the street was wearing a police academy T-shirt and had a badge in his pocket.

It emerged that father-of-two Omar Edwards, 25, was chasing a thief who had just broken into his car.

Now police are trying to determine whether disciplinary or legal action will be taken against the 30-year-officer who fired or whether Mr Edwards had followed proper procedure.

The officer who fired and two others involved were placed on administrative duty and it was too early to say whether anyone was at fault, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

“The matter is under investigation. I’m not going to characterise the shooting in any way,” he said.

The episode has again raised questions about whether the New York Police Department is too trigger-happy, especially when the targets are black. The officers were white and Officer Edwards was black.

Officer Edwards left his shift early at the police housing bureau in Manhattan’s Harlem neighbourhood on Thursday at around 10.30pm local time when he saw a man rummaging through his car along a dark street.

The man, Miguel Santiago, had used a metal spark plug to smash the window, police said.

Mr Edwards struggled with Santiago, who wriggled out of his shirt and fled. Officer Edwards pursued him with his 9mm handgun drawn, witnesses told police.

Meanwhile, Officer Andrew Dunton, a sergeant and another officer in an unmarked police car came upon the two men.

Santiago, who ran past the officers, said later that he heard Officer Dunton yell: “Police! Stop! Drop the gun!”

Officer Edwards, in front of the police car, turned towards the officers, police said.

Officer Dunton fired six times from behind the passenger’s door and Officer Edwards was hit in the left arm, hip and back.

He died at the Harlem Hospital Centre about an hour after the shooting.

Officer Edwards did not fire his weapon and Mr Browne said that so far there were no witnesses to say he identified himself as an officer.

The other two officers pursued Santiago and arrested him.

Officer Dunton has been a policeman for four years.

Officer Edwards joined the NYPD in July 2007 and his family said he always wanted to be a policeman.

Yesterday purple and black bunting hung in front of the police station and several vigils were held for the family.