Yesterday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he expected a grand jury to investigate a police detective's fatal shooting of an unarmed driver on the Grand Central Parkway last week. Kelly told reporters, "It will require what I believe to be a grand jury investigation to determine precisely what happened there."
Noel Polanco, a 22-year-old reservist in the National Guard, was driving on the Grand Central Parkway early Thursday morning when he apparently cut off an unmarked NYPD ESU vehicle. Police say that Polanco was driving erratically, prompting the officers to pull him over. However, one of Polanco's passengers, Diane DeFerrari, says that after he cut off the NYPD vehicle, the cops were overcome by "road rage" and tried to run him off the road. During the traffic stop, Detective Hassan Hamdy, on the front passenger's side (where DeFerrari was sitting), fired at Polanco once. Polanco died from the gunshot wound to the stomach.
DeFerrari told reporters that cops had approached them with "rifles drawn," and while they said, "Put your hands up," she insisted, "There was no time to put your hands up at all. They shot in front of my face. Had I moved an inch, it would probably have been me." She said she was told, "Your friend shot himself’ ... I was in utter shock... [But] his hands were on the steering wheel at all times."
The shooting is being investigated by NYPD Internal Affairs and the Queens DA's office. Hamdy's lawyer said that his client, who has previously been accused of excessive force, is "extremely anxious to testify before the panel to give his version of the events."
Polanco's mother Cecilia Reyes met with the Rev. Al Sharpton over the weekend. Sharpton said, "There must be a fair and immediate investigation," while Reyes said, "We want to believe in the law. We don't want to have to be afraid of the law."
