White Cop Shoots Black Cop In Harlem

Details of the shooting death of an off-duty cop last night in Harlem slowly started to emerge today as family members mourned the loss of the rookie officer.

Officer Andrew Duton, a 4 ½ year NYPD veteran, unleashed a hail of bullets on plain-clothed officer Omar Edwards, 25, in a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Edwards, a rookie cop who lived with his wife and two small children in Brooklyn, confronted a suspect who was trying to break into his car at about 10:30 p.m. last night.

Edwards had gotten off duty from PSA 5 early, at 10 p.m. -- his scheduled quit time was 2:30 a.m. -- and called 911 when he saw Miguel Santiago, who has five prior arrests for drugs, assault and robbery, breaking into his car at 125th Street and Second Avenue, police sources said.

Edwards had pulled his gun on Santiago as they confronted one another on the misty, rain-drenched streets.

At that moment, Dunton and two other officers from the 25th Precinct anti-crime unit rolled up, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

It is unclear if Edwards identified himself as an officer. Santiago told police he heard someone yell to him and Edwards, "Stop! Police!"

Dunton jumped out of the car and fired off six shots -- two of which struck Edwards, who wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest because he was off duty, Kelly said.

Though the official cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, the bullet that caused the fatal injury entered the left side of Edward's back before hitting his heart and left lung, said medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove. It lodged in the front of his chest, and was recovered.

An autopsy also found that another bullet tunneled through the victim's left arm. He also was hit in the left hip by a third bullet.

The officer who fired the gun is white; Edwards was black. Kelly said investigators would try to determine if that played a role in the friendly-fire tragedy.

While exactly what occurred is unclear, the police patrol guide says in officer-on-officer conflicts "the actions of the members in the first few seconds are of vital importance."

Officials said today it's up to the confronted officer to ID himself right away. And even if the confronted cop is chasing a suspect, he should "remain motionless even if it means a fleeing suspect may escape."

Still, the confronting cops are supposed to shout "Police! Don't move!"

The NYPD has already changed their training procedure by adding a class on the procedure for confronting a fellow officer.

Edwards, who lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with his wife, Danielle Edwards and their two sons, Xavier, 18 months, and Keanu, 7 months, died at 11:21 p.m. at Harlem Hospital.

"I can't believe another cop shot him. I cannot understand how a police officer can just fire on another police officer," Edwards father, Ricardo, 72, said. "This was my son - a good man. I am very upset and don't know what really happened."

His mother, Natalia Harding, lives in the apartment next to Edwards and his family.

"Before he left to work this afternoon he hugged me and kissed me and told me he would see me in the morning. He won't see me now," Harding said. "He was a good son and a great father.

"You should have seen him with his 2 boys - they were inseparable. I'm missing him badly already. His oldest son, Xavier, wants his father to come home. I miss him so much," she said.

Edwards was only just married. Sources said the civil ceremony took place at the city's Manhattan wedding chapel on April 17.

"This is a sad day for the city and for the New York Police Department," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference early this morning.

Kelly added, "I hope the prayers of all New Yorkers are with Police Officer Edwards and his family."

The violence jolted people who happened to be nearby.

"He wasn't moving," said Oni Rodriguez, 23. "He was wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt with lots of blood. They put him on a stretcher."

Malik Lane, 20, who lives in a nearby shelter, heard the blast of gunfire as far away as 125th and Lexington Avenue.

His friend Christian Becances, 19, said he thought he heard multiple gun pops.

"I said to myself, 'Where's that coming from?' " Becances said.

"It was very chaotic. I heard a lot of police officers. They were hugging each other, and when I asked a cop what happened he said, 'Leave me alone.' "

The shooting eerily recalled an August 1994 confrontation in which an off-duty officer mistook a plainclothes cop for a gunman,

Officer Peter DelDebbio, who is white, was searching for two armed teens on a Midtown subway station when he opened fire, hitting another cop, Desmond Robinson, who is black, five times. Robinson survived and forgave the shooter.

Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and CJ Sullivan