Mistaken Identity: Black Off-Duty Cop Shot Dead By White Officer in NYC

Life was looking good for Omar Edwards up to the point of encountering a man rummaging through his vehicle in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood on the night of May 28.

Police Officer Omar Edwards

A month prior the 25-year-old police rookie had married the mother of his children, 1 1/2-year-old Xavier and 7-month-old Keanua. Wearing street clothes, he had just gotten off work at a job he had wanted to do since he was a child. Perhaps it seemed like things couldn't get any better. In truth, they never would.

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, [New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond] Kelly said.

Edwards did not fire his weapon.

SOURCE: NY Daily News.

The cop who shot him, 30-year-old Andrew Dunton, had never previously fired his weapon. After the shooting the three officers moved to apprehend Edwards, having mistaken the black cop for a criminal.

As he lay handcuffed on the ground, cops cut off his shirt to reveal a Police Academy T-shirt and found NYPD shield No. 12734 in his pants pocket.

SOURCE: NY Daily News.

Edwards was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead an hour after the shooting. According to friends, Dunton is "heartbroken" over what happened.

Edwards leaves behind a grieving family, and a city asking a lot of questions. The NYPD says it is investigating the shooting. Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton says he is concerned about "a growing pattern of black officers being killed with the assumption that they are the criminals," and wants a federal investigation. He was joined by at least 200 demonstrators on May 30 for a Harlem rally that led to a march down 125th Street.

There have been a couple of cases involving minority officers shot by white officers in recent years. In 2008, a black, off-duty Mount Vernon, N.Y. police officer was killed by a Westchester County, N.Y. 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. In 2006, an Hispanic New York City police officer, Eric Hernandez, was shot and killed by an on-duty patrolman who was responding to a gun call at a White Castle in the Bronx. Dazed by a beating he had just received, Hernandez failed to drop his weapon when asked to.

Talk About It: Was Officer Edwards' Shooting a Racist Act
Or Just a Tragic Mistake?

In situations such as these, police officers are called upon to make split-second life-or-death decisions. In those brief moments, they must rely on training and instinct to make the right decisions. All a target can rely on is the benefit of the doubt that he is not a lethal threat.

It's not surprising that as a black man in street clothes, Officer Edwards didn't get the benefit of the doubt. Heartbreaking, yes, but not surprising given the realities of racial profiling against men of color.

If there are lessons to be learned from this tragedy, let's learn them from a full, thorough, and impartial investigation. Things can't get better anymore for Omar Edwards, but perhaps they can for other minority police officers who put themselves at risk to keep our communities safe.