The New York City police officer had just gotten off duty. Omar Edwards was tired after a long shift of patrolling housing projects in East Harlem.

Omar Edwards must have seen something suspicious. Maybe he saw a drug dealer try to sell some crack. We don’t know.

What we do know is that Omar Edwards, a NYPD officer who is black, chased a suspect down East 125th Street with his gun drawn.

Sadly, three other New York City police officers, including Andrew Dunton, who is white, saw Omar Edwards running with his gun out. Officer Dunton opened fire, hitting Officer Edwards with two shots from his 9 mm Glock.

Omar Edwards had recently married. He had two kids. Officer Edwards was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, and he died at 11:21 p.m.

The NYPD is investigating whether Officer Andrew Dunton identified himself as a cop or demanded that Officer Omar Edwards drop his weapon before he pulled the trigger.

Omar Edward’s shooting is likely to raise debate about race and crime. This isn’t the first time that a white cop got nervous, fired his gun without thinking, and a black man died. Do you know about the Sean Bell incident?

In November 2006, a team of plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers shot at one Latino and two African-American men, who were unarmed. They killed Sean Bell, who was black. The cops fired 50 shots in that incident.

How about Amadou Diallo in 1999? An unarmed black African immigrant was shot 41 times by four white New York police officers. No weapons were found on Amadou Diallo's body. He was attempting to show the officers his driver’s license when he was killed in a blaze of bullets.

Should the NYPD undergo more response training? I say yes. Race is always an issue, and police that go around armed must think twice before pulling the trigger.


(H/T to The New York Times)


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