DA probing Queens cop's 'road rage' shooting of unarmed Army National Guardsman
By JAMIE SCHRAM, GEORGETT ROBERTS and DAN MANGAN
Last Updated: 5:35 AM, October 5, 2012
An unarmed Army National Guardsman was pulled over on a Queens road and fatally shot by an elite NYPD officer yesterday — and the DA now is probing what the victim’s friend called a case of police “road rage.”
Noel Polanco’s hands were on the steering wheel of his 2012 Honda Fit moments before Detective Hassan Hamdy shot him once in the torso, a woman sitting in the front passenger seat told cops and reporters.
But police spokesman Paul Browne said it’s unknown if Polanco, 22, moved after Hamdy yelled, “Show me your hands!” to the three people in the car, one a sleeping off-duty cop in the back seat, on the Grand Central Parkway near La Guardia Airport at 5:15 a.m.
No weapon was found in the car. An electric drill was on the driver’s-side floor.
“The matter is under investigation,” said a spokeswoman for DA Richard Brown. NYPD Internal Affairs is also investigating.
Polanco’s pal Diane DeFerrari, a bartender who was in the front seat, last night accused cops of killing him in “an act of road rage” after he cut off the cops’ unmarked car, not knowing who they were.
“There was no reason for this innocent to be killed,” DeFerrari said. “He was shot intentionally.”
She said cops had been chasing them, “sticking their middle fingers at us and screaming obscenities.’’
DeFerrari, 36, said the cops jumped out with “rifles drawn,’’ and, as they ordered, “Put your hands up,’’ Hamdy fired.
“There was no time to put your hands up at all,” said DeFerrari, a mom of three. “They shot in front of my face. Had I moved an inch, it would probably have been me.’’
She said the cop later said, “ ‘Your friend shot himself’ . . . I was in utter shock.’’ But “his hands were on the steering wheel at all times..”
more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/queens_cop_kills_unarmed_driver_qCCu7n6WNQgHyfhmecjz4K
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