Omar Edwards

Omar Edwards, 25, an off-duty NYPD officer, was shot and killed by a fellow officer, Sergeant Andrew Dunton, in East Harlem on May 28, 2009, moments after Edwards had chased a man who broke into his personal car. Edwards, in plainclothes with his badge not visible, ran toward Dunton's unmarked car with his own service weapon drawn while pursuing the suspect; Dunton, believing Edwards was a threat, fired six times, striking him in the arm, hip, and back. No witness reported hearing Edwards identify himself as a police officer before the shooting, and he never fired his own weapon. A Manhattan grand jury, after hearing from 20 witnesses and reviewing 68 documents, declined to indict Dunton in September 2009. Civil rights leaders questioned whether the outcome would have been different had the officers' races been reversed. No one has ever been criminally charged in Edwards's death.

New York, NY · New York County

• 2009: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The car break-in, the foot chase, and the shooting, per Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's public account of the grand jury proceedings.
• Edwards, off duty and in plainclothes, chased a man who had smashed his car window; Dunton and other plainclothes officers on anti-crime patrol encountered the pursuit and ordered the men to halt.
• Witnesses said Edwards turned toward the officers with his service weapon in hand as Dunton fired six shots from behind his car door, striking Edwards in the left arm, hip, and back; the fatal wound entered from the side of his back before reaching his heart and lung.
• Edwards never fired his own weapon, and no witness reported hearing him identify himself as a police officer before he was shot.
• A Manhattan grand jury heard from 20 witnesses and examined 68 documents before declining to indict Dunton on any charge in September 2009.
• The Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders publicly renewed calls for the New York governor to authorize a special prosecutor for police shooting cases in the wake of the decision.
• Dunton remained on administrative duty following the shooting pending a separate internal NYPD disciplinary review.

• Whether Edwards, an on-the-job trained officer himself, had any real opportunity to identify himself before Dunton fired, given the encounter unfolded in seconds on a dark street, was central to both the grand jury's review and the public debate that followed, and was never resolved by any criminal trial since none was brought.
• Whether the fact that Edwards was Black and Dunton is white affected the split-second assessment of threat, as Edwards's mother and civil rights leaders publicly suggested, was raised repeatedly in public commentary but not something the grand jury's process was designed to determine.
• The outcome of NYPD's own internal disciplinary review of Dunton's conduct, separate from the grand jury's declination, has not been made comprehensively public.

• NBC News — “No charges in NYC friendly fire police shooting”
• Fox News — “NYPD Probes Killing of Black Cop by Fellow Officer”
• The Grio — “White cop evades criminal charges in death of Omar Edwards”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs