Posted on 10/07/2012 6:36:02 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
An NYPD officer yesterday shot and killed an unarmed Army reservist as he went to pick up a drill after they stopped his car.
Noel Polanco, 22, was fired at when he cut off the police car near New York's LaGuardia Airport, after they shouted at him to put his hands up, a witness said.
Passenger Diane DeFerrari insisted Mr Polanco never even took his hands off the wheel and the police had acted out of 'road rage.'
Tragedy: Noel Polanco, 22, was shot dead by a police officer as he drove two passengers home from the bar where he works
Horrified: Passenger Diane DeFerrari, who worked at the Ice Lounge bar with Mr Polanco, said he was not given a chance to put his hands up before police shot him
Officers who had given terrifying chase in an unmarked vehicle screamed, 'Put up your hands!', and then shot Mr Polanco a split-second later, she said.
'It was simultaneous,' she added. 'There was a pop and Noel gasped.'
After the shooting, Ms DeFerrari, 36, said she and a backseat passenger, an off-duty NYPD officer, were ordered out and told to put their hands on the car. 'The cop said, "Your friend just shot himself",' said Ms DeFerrari. 'I didn’t dispute what I saw because I was afraid. They wouldn’t let me look at him.'
The officer riding in Mr Polanco’s car, 29-year-old Vanessa Rodriguez, was waving her police ID out the window just before the shooting, sources said.
Detective Hassam Hamdy insisted he pulled the trigger after Mr Polanco, from Queens, reached down for something that turned out to be a yellow-and-black power drill, a source told the Daily News.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Do you hear me laughing!!!!
It wasn't "alleged" -- it said "police sources" which means "cops on the ground". closest to the vehicle. And no one would think to say something like that except a police officer.
No one else on the ground there had "sources" giving out information -- only the police. So that came from a policeman in the know.
What makes you think that those "police sources" were not telling the truth from the start.
Do you really think that people out here are that naive???
Official sources are censoring sources selecting facts and twisting words to craft a narrative beneficial to the department.
I'll take police sources over official channels any day.
The point is that she put it out the window JUST BEFORE THE SHOOTING according to police sources on the ground at the scene -- which means that she wasn't asleep as official channels now allege.
That means that she saw the shooting and knows whether Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel or not.
AND if he didn't have his hands on the steering wheel and she saw he didn't the official channels would have her in front of cameras saying so and would be quoting her to the press ad infinitum 24 hours a day.
But the aren't.
Yes, it’s only Sunday, but this story is already a serious contender for CF of the Week.
Yeah, the cop is a taliban plant who talked six other cops into ambushing a NG troop and I took my freeper name 11 years ago in anticipation of the obamsa truth squads...you really are a bit un-wrapped, aren’t you.
Skipping past the Moslem in this rather bizarre case is a serious issue.,P>And you started name-calling ~ a clarion signal of abject defeat.
Someone else asking the same question:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/10/nypd_officer_sh.php
Again, an off-duty officer was supposedly sleeping in the back seat of the car the entire time — she claims she didn’t witness the shooting.
Yes, it sounds a little odd to us, too.
If we were stopped by a cop and had a sleeping cop in the car with us, the first thing we’re gonna do is wake her up to speak with the officer who’s pulling us over — hope that perhaps a little professional courtesy might lead to a warning rather than a ticket, or worse.
That, apparently, didn’t happen.
We sent the NYPD an email asking for an explanation of how the sleeping officer managed to miss the entire shooting. We’re yet to hear back.
Whoa..!That's the first I've heard anything directly from her! She has come out and personally made that claim? Wow! Breaking news!
What a scoop for... the Village Voice?
/eyeroll
Would you expect the official spokesperson for someone who was supposedly sleeping in the back seat the whole time to claim that she said otherwise???
Show me a reliable source where this "sleeping" cop makes any claims at all, and specifically, what she claims she saw or didn't see. Direct quotes for her, please... I'm up to here with second-hand inferences.
Until somebody can do that, I'll get back to you after the investigation is completed. (Imagine that - - waiting for all the facts before convicting somebody in liberal knee-jerk fashion.) Talk to you then.
“The police proceeded to try to chase us, sticking their middle finger at us and screaming obscenities at the car and trying to pull us over,” DeFerrari said.
With no police logos and no sirens blaring, DeFerrari said she had no idea they were cops.
“I honestly thought it was an armored car and security for an armored car. At no time did they specify police,” DeFerrari said.
DeFerrari said the flashing lights were on, but the sirens weren’t. Seconds later, she said, at least eight officers rushed to the car with guns drawn and even rifles out before one fatal shot was fired.
“They did say simultaneously with the fire, ‘Put your hands up!’ There was no time to put your hands up at all,” she said.
EIGHT OFFICERS rushed them.
Police official channels said only 2 officers.
So who’s lying???
Who would reach for anything under their seat with 8 officers with guns drawn facing them — much less 2.
Except that we are told that she was sleeping the whole time. Did someone witness her sleeping??? No. So how would anyone know unless she said so or someone is claiming that she said so. Because she ain't talking.
Regarding her hands out the window waving an ID??? The report of that waving ID did not have to have come from her. Someone like a police officer on the scene would have seen that waving out the window. She didn't have to say a word for that incident to be verified. We would know about it independent of her words.
And that NY Daily story in which it was reported had 4 reporters -- not just one. So several people would have probably heard about the waving ID.
I dunno... Maybe a fleeing, reckless driving drunk on his way home from a "lounge" at 5 in the morning?
So who’s lying???
Between a bartender on her way home from the lounge and a police department? I don't know - - tough call.
Early reports had the deceased with his hands on the steering wheel..
LOL!
“It was in the newspaper so it MUST be true!”
As is the line that she slept through the whole thing.
I suspect that a drill was found in the car so the police then fabricated the story that, because the drill is vaguely shaped like a pistol, he was reaching for the drill.
I think two people said he never took his hands off the wheel. If the police then saw the drill in the car or if it was found later then the police would incorporate it into their own claims. After all, to a police officer, a Black and Decker yellow drill does look just like a Glock 40.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.