Mother of Friendly-Fire Slain Cop Lashes Out

The mother of the undercover police officer who was shot by a fellow officer in East Harlem in May has expressed how displeased she is with the handling of the case. Natalia Harding, mother of the late Officer Omar Edwards, has rekindled discussion over the incident in which her son, a black officer in plainclothes, was fatally shot by Officer Andrew Dunton, a white cop chasing on foot. Harding said, "If this was Omar Edwards who shot -- whatever his name is — Dunton, Omar Edwards would be sitting in jail right now waiting to be tried for murder. I would like to see him go to jail. He is going to go out and do the same thing again."

The victim's mother says that she has not been kept abreast of the status of the investigation, whether a grand jury has been summoned. She also complained that officials reached out immediately following the incident, but then quickly disappeared. She told NY1's Dominic Carter, "I didn't hear neither from the mayor, neither from [Police Commissioner] Kelly. No, I did not. Not in the last two months, just when the incident happened. They came to my house. Ever since then, that's it. It's like it's sweeped up under the rug."

Both Bloomberg and Kelly publicly offered their sympathies once again, saying that an investigation is ongoing. Bloomberg also added that members of the Department continue to retain contact with Harding. Both were careful not to address any of the mother's specific allegations, as she told Carter, "It wasn't an accident, Omar got shot in his back. That's not an accident...Dunton can come and do me a favor, shoot me in my back too and just take me because the pain that I'm suffering - I want no other mother to go through what I am suffering right now."