Off-Duty Cop Admits to Fatal Road Rage Shooting

An off-duty police officer turned himself in for Sunday's fatal road rage-related shooting in Harlem. Sean Sawyer, who joined the NYPD and worked as an undercover officer, approached a police cruiser yesterday morning, "I think you guys are looking for me for the shooting last night on the FDR [Drive]...This is the gun I used...I thought the guy was armed - make a sign like a gun. I think I'm having a heart attack; please get an ambulance."

That someone was Jayson Tirado, a 25-year-old Lower East Side resident. An accident on the FDR Drive had caused much traffic and apparently Sawyer, in a SUV, was upset that Tirado, driving a Honda with two passengers, had refused to let him merge into a lane to exit the FDR. The two argued, and later Tirado cut Sawyer off on First Avenue (here's a map from the Daily News).

With Tirado's car blocking his, Sawyer apparently got out of his car and approached the Honda. A witness said that Tirado gestured as if he had a gun, looked in the backseat, and may have said, "You want to see Mr. Ruger?" That remark may have set off Sawyer, who then shot at Tirado's car with a 9mm mini-Glock around 117th Street and First Avenue. Sawyer then drove off.

Tirado and his passengers were unarmed. Tirado, who has a young daughter, died at Harlem Hospital. Newsday had quotes from the victim's and shooter's families:

"He killed him like a reckless teenager, shooting him through the window, abandoning my son, letting him die," said Tirado's mother, Irene Tirado, 54, of the Lower East Side. "Now, I find out he's a police officer."

But Sawyer's brother, Christopher, 36, called his brother "a hero by nature."

"He's a good cop," said Christopher, who lives in the same Manhattan Valley apartment building as his brother. "It's a clean shooting. You do not reach down into your car on a New York City police officer in this city.

"My brother did his job."

One of Tirado's passengers, Jason Batista, says that Sawyer never identified himself as a police officer during the exchange; the other passenger was too drunk to remember and police say Tirado was also drinking. It's unclear whether Sawyer was drinking, but Batista claims Sawyer also said, "You don't know how to drive. Don't make me kill one of you n-----s."

Sawyer was suspended without pay and stripped of his badge (he gave the police officers he turned himself into his gun), as well as given a Breathalyzer test though the shooting occurred almost a day earlier. The NY Times reports that "officials were trying to determine whether to charge Officer Sawyer with a crime and whether he had acted in self defense, according to the authorities." Additionally, Sawyer faces discipline for not reporting the shooting.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 23, 2007 11:06 AM

Comments [rss]

trashoutofnyc

" A witness said that Tirado gestured as if he had a gun, looked in the backseat, and may have said, "You want to see Mr. Ruger?""

No winners here either way.

iralarry

How does a 4 year veteran of the police force allow a minor right of way driving incident to escalate into the death of a civilian? I always thought that the police were here to serve and protect, not take out their personal grudges on innocent citizens! This officer should be incarcerated for second degree murder, or minimally, criminally negligent homicide. All he had to do was act like an adult and let the driver get his way on this one. Many of us tolerate this daily. Instead he did exactly what he should not have done and antagonized and spurred on the rage by confronting the driver like a child. Where were his skills as a sworn officer or his tactical ability to calm a situation? There is no excuse here. Let justice be done. Look at it like this, he was off duty at the time so treat him like a common citizen rather than as a cop and maybe that will allow justice to prevail. I have so little faith in the police of this city. I bet he fled the scene to avoid the field sobriety testing mandated after a police shooting, hum?

Reflect

Yea the guy was shot in the back. Real fucking Courtesy Professionalisim Respect.

drewo

Amazing that they even have to consider pressing charges.

Ray Kelly has made noise about running for Mayor. He and his handlers would be wise not to try to cover this up and should even put this case front and center and demonstrate that nobody is above the law. Let's see if Kelly and the NYPD can show they are above the good ol' boy network.

JenChungsBaby

My brother was just doing his job -- killing minorities.

JMZ

I'll bet the PO is from Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, or Orange county that would be scared to walk thru El Barrio during the day w/o a firearm. Give him a Glock and a badge he's the terminator in any hood.

captainblackout

I can see what the cop's brother is trying to do, but his quote doesn't make any sense. His brother was off-duty, and he's trying to make it seem like his brother was wearing his uniform.

Also, a clean shooting is not a shooting your turn yourself in for 19 hours later.

Amanda Harletsch

excuses! People that get into scaling a confrontation are MORONS! Specially when they carry guns to back their "logic".

bklynd

"It's a clean shooting. You do not reach down into your car on a New York City police officer in this city."

THIS is the problem - the way cops never seem able to examine their actions in a critical light. (Granted, this quote is from the guy's brother, who is going to be even more biased.)

How about, "You don't engage in confrontations with random people when you are off duty."

JP Lynch

Sawyer's brother thinks he did a 'good job' and that it was a 'clean shooting'?

Uh, yeah, if doing a good job as a police officer means killing an unarmed man. And how does this idiot know it was a clean shooting?!?! Also, how come I've read several times in each article about this how Tirado was drinking but there doesn't seem to be too much emphasis on the fact that Sawyer left the scene and didn't turn himself until 19 hours later?

Not as if an upstanding 'hero' like this was trying to hide anything...

zodak

i guess we should consider ourselves lucky the pigs don't shoot us for standing on the sidewalk the way the commenters in this post would like them to do.

Rocknrope

...he turned himself into his gun

What a magician.

Rocknrope

Waiting for the Lord of the Dance jig comment...but maybe the registration is keeping him away.

Pizza_Time

And you wonder why some people think cops are corrupt bullies and juvenile assholes, with a bad attitude and a misguided sense of entitlement and superiority.

HughGass

Cops have nobody to blame but themselves for their standing in the community.

Reality Czech

"I thought the guy was armed - make a sign like a gun."

Typical bullshit cop defense. I think they must train cops to say that. Yet another cop thinking they are above the law.