Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a sad night for all New Yorkers. He said Officer Omar Edwards was fatality shot by another officer who thought Edwards was a suspect.
According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Edwards chased a suspect who had rummaged through his car. Edwards was armed and in plain clothes, but he was not wearing vest because he had just gotten off duty.
Plainclothes officers spotted the chase and intervened. Kelly said one of those officers got out of his vehicle and fired six times, hitting Edwards in the arm and chest.
The officer who fired the fatal shots has been on force 4 and a half years.
Kelly said Edwards did not fire his weapon.
He was a member of housing bureau impact response team. He joined department in July of 2007.
Edwards was a 25-year-old Brooklyn resident recentlty married with 2 young children.
The last New York City police officer killed in the line of duty was /*Russel Timoshenko*/. The 23-year-old officer was shot during a traffic stop in Brooklyn in July 2007.
Earlier in 2007, a gunman shot and killed two unarmed auxiliary police officers, /*Nicholas T. Pekearo*/, 28, and /*Yevgeniy Marshalik*/, 19, in Greenwich Village.
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