The cops had been cut off twice by an erratic driver who then attempted to flle. At 5 in the morning. When he was finally forced to pull over by being “boxed in”, the cops approached the vehicle with apprehension and extreme caution (obviously).
Moments later the driver was shot dead.
In my opinion there are three possible reasons for the shoooting
1. The cop murdered the driver in cold blood in front of a lot of witnesses.
2. The cop fired his weapon unintentionally, perhaps out of nervousness or a hair trigger or some other reason. (And yeah, “another reason” the cop had a tight grip on his weapon could be that the cop was pissed because the driver had cut him off twice on a highway at night, thereby endangering his life and the lives of the other passengers.)
3. The driver continued to act stupidly, and did indeed reach down toward the floor of his dark vehicle as the cop’s weapon was trained on him, at which point the cop fired. (And yeah, maybe the “road enraged” cop just wanted an excuse, any excuse, to shoot the driver. ... And the driver was helpful.)
Regardless of the above possibilities, it was the driver who put himself in a position to suffer this tragedy.
In any event I feel badly for everybody involved.
And then there is this interesting observation from a commenter to this article:
HananJamaica, NY
The account of the NYPD sounds unbelievable. When seated in a car, unless the seat were leaned back in a lounge position, the stomach area is a tight space to have a bullet fired into. The body is in a near 90 degree angle between knees under the steering wheel and the back being upright. Hamdy would have had to have been standing at the front side of the car window near the windshield to shoot someone seated as such in the stomach— from a very specific angle. At this angle, Hamdy would see the chest, shoulders and hands maybe, They may not have been visible if they were on the steering wheel. As described by NYPD, Polanco made a motion reaching down to the floor of the car. Polanco could only move so far and almost any move would have provided more protection for his stomach area reducing the angle to much less than it was in a seated position. Polanco can’t get shot in the stomach if the gun is at the side of the car; there is virtually no angle for this to occur. If Polanco moves, there is less opportunity for a stomach wound. If Polanco’s hands remain on the wheel and he does not move— this provides a logical, measurable angle for a stomach wound to occur. Hamdy’s positioning outside of the door nearly facing Polanco and Polanco’s limited movement appear to be the only way a stomach wound is possible. Until the trial with ALL of the details emerge, the NYPD can say anything. Don’t believe the off-duty officer was asleep through all this! Polanco did not have a chance!
In other words the officer could not have hit Polanco in the abdomen if he had been leaning forward to reach under the seat at the time. It would have had to go into his side not his abdomen. The autopsy and ballistics will be interesting.
Although I,more often than not,side with the cops in a situation like this I’m strongly inclined to take the other side in this case.
They use the firing ranges there and they drive down to the site using large SUVs ~ and sometimes even trucks.
They weave in and out of traffic and never leave enough room in between their vehicles to allow someone to get between them. This is for practice for when they might need to do it for real.
This sort of thing in heavy traffic turns them into targets but don't tell them that everybody in Virginia is already armed to the teeth ~ they don't care ~ because they know that as long as they don't do a "Squat and Stop" it's more than likely nobody will shoot them ~ and they know that only because no one has done that yet.
We all know who they are. Still I'm sure a number of them think other drivers have no idea!
There have been road rage events in that area. A truck driver and a motorist got into a regular shooting match one day near the main bridge over the Occoquan.
From the viewpoint of the drivers in the convoy anyone attempting to change lanes into their lane would look like there was an attempt to 'cut them off' ~ and that's because everyone in the convoy but the lead driver does not view the lane changes as real ~ they don't even sense them.
The second driver who failed to keep up would see any car in the lane to the left as cutting him off.
I bet a good civil practice lawyer is going to be sitting there with an insurance adjuster at his side interrogating every officer present in a command interrogatory.
They will find out the cops were practicing high speed convoy protocols ~ which means they shot their victim without even any provocation ~ it wasn't him moving back and forth, it was them!
So, murder 2? All the cops in this one? Or just the shooter? GAZILLION DOLLAR AWARD FUR SHUR>