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No Charges for Detective in a Killing of a Driver
A Queens grand jury voted to not indict a decorated detective who fatally shot an unarmed driver during a highway traffic stop last year, the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said on Thursday.
The shooting, in October 2012, came after two police trucks had been cut off by another vehicle on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. The police trucks forced the car to pull over.
In the ensuing encounter on the side of the road, a single shot was fired into the car, killing the driver, Noel Polanco, 22. A police officer had ordered those inside the car to show their hands; a passenger has said that Mr. Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel when he was shot by the detective, Hassan Hamdy.
Detective Hamdy’s lawyer has said that Mr. Polanco had reached down to the floor of the car, and that the detective believed that he was reaching for a gun. No weapon was found in the car, although a small power drill was found on the floor of the driver’s side.
Detective Hamdy’s lawyer, Philip Karasyk, said his client was “extremely relieved by today’s decision.”
“This is something that he never wanted to have happened,” Mr. Karasyk said. “No police officer ever wants to be faced with such a life-or-death, split-second decision. It stays with them forever. He once again extends his sincere condolences to the Polanco family.”
Mr. Karasyk said Detective Hamdy, a 14-year veteran of the police force, testified before the grand jury. “I think the grand jury found his testimony truthful and sincere,” he said.
Mr. Brown said in a statement that the grand jury had met nine times over five weeks. “This office conducted a thorough, complete and independent investigation into all of the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Polanco’s death,” he said.
Detective Hamdy, who was assigned to a tactical team, was named, along with other officers, in two suits claiming police abuse. The city settled both cases. Reached by telephone on Thursday, Mr. Polanco’s mother, Cecilia Reyes, called the grand jury’s decision “not fair.”
The events leading to the fatal shooting began about 5:15 a.m. on Oct. 4, with Mr. Polanco driving erratically on the Grand Central Parkway with two passengers, the police said. He had just left a hookah lounge where he worked part time. The officers in the two police trucks, members of an apprehension team that searches for violent offenders, had just executed a warrant in the Bronx and were headed to Brooklyn with another warrant, the police said.
The officers turned on their lights and sirens, but Mr. Polanco did not initially pull over, the police said. He stopped only after the two trucks boxed him in. He was intoxicated, well over the legal alcohol limit for a driver, a person familiar with the evidence said.
A front-seat passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, told investigators later that Mr. Polanco was killed without being given time to raise his hands. She characterized the shooting as a case of police road rage.
Tito Cordero, a friend of the Polanco family, accused the grand jury of giving Detective Hamdy preferential treatment. “It’s horrible. We need to get justice,” Mr. Cordero said on Thursday. “They didn’t indict him like a regular man who did wrong.”
A Queens grand jury voted to not indict a decorated detective who fatally shot an unarmed driver during a highway traffic stop last year, the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said on Thursday.
The shooting, in October 2012, came after two police trucks had been cut off by another vehicle on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. The police trucks forced the car to pull over.
In the ensuing encounter on the side of the road, a single shot was fired into the car, killing the driver, Noel Polanco, 22. A police officer had ordered those inside the car to show their hands; a passenger has said that Mr. Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel when he was shot by the detective, Hassan Hamdy.
Detective Hamdy’s lawyer has said that Mr. Polanco had reached down to the floor of the car, and that the detective believed that he was reaching for a gun. No weapon was found in the car, although a small power drill was found on the floor of the driver’s side.
Detective Hamdy’s lawyer, Philip Karasyk, said his client was “extremely relieved by today’s decision.”
“This is something that he never wanted to have happened,” Mr. Karasyk said. “No police officer ever wants to be faced with such a life-or-death, split-second decision. It stays with them forever. He once again extends his sincere condolences to the Polanco family.”
Mr. Karasyk said Detective Hamdy, a 14-year veteran of the police force, testified before the grand jury. “I think the grand jury found his testimony truthful and sincere,” he said.
Mr. Brown said in a statement that the grand jury had met nine times over five weeks. “This office conducted a thorough, complete and independent investigation into all of the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Polanco’s death,” he said.
Detective Hamdy, who was assigned to a tactical team, was named, along with other officers, in two suits claiming police abuse. The city settled both cases. Reached by telephone on Thursday, Mr. Polanco’s mother, Cecilia Reyes, called the grand jury’s decision “not fair.”
The events leading to the fatal shooting began about 5:15 a.m. on Oct. 4, with Mr. Polanco driving erratically on the Grand Central Parkway with two passengers, the police said. He had just left a hookah lounge where he worked part time. The officers in the two police trucks, members of an apprehension team that searches for violent offenders, had just executed a warrant in the Bronx and were headed to Brooklyn with another warrant, the police said.
The officers turned on their lights and sirens, but Mr. Polanco did not initially pull over, the police said. He stopped only after the two trucks boxed him in. He was intoxicated, well over the legal alcohol limit for a driver, a person familiar with the evidence said.
A front-seat passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, told investigators later that Mr. Polanco was killed without being given time to raise his hands. She characterized the shooting as a case of police road rage.
Tito Cordero, a friend of the Polanco family, accused the grand jury of giving Detective Hamdy preferential treatment. “It’s horrible. We need to get justice,” Mr. Cordero said on Thursday. “They didn’t indict him like a regular man who did wrong.”
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