PRETEND-GUN SHOOTING LEADS TO REAL FATAL ONE
By BRIAN HAMACHER and LARRY CELONA
Officers inspect the car where a man was shot dead on 120th Street and 1st Avenue October 22, 2007 -- By LARRY CELONA, REBECCA ROSENBERG and DAN MANGAN
An undercover cop today came forward Monday and admitted to fatally shooting an unarmed 25-year-old driver during a road-rage argument on a Harlem street the day before - a shooting the off-duty officer fled from without notifying authorities.
Hours after Officer Sean Sawyer's dramatic admission, NYPD brass said the Queens narcotics cop shot Jayson Tirado when Tirado reached toward the back seat of his car, pretended to pull out a gun, and told him, "Say hello to Mr. Ruger."
Sawyer, 33, was holed up at the 25th Precinct, where he refused to answer detectives' questions about the Sunday morning shooting, which occurred 10 hours after he went off duty. He also retained a lawyer.
"The investigation is continuing, so as of yet, no one has been charged," said a spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Tirado's grieving family blasted the married Sawyer for being trigger-happy and killing the father of one for no good reason.
"He killed [Tirado] like a reckless teenager, shooting him through the window, abandoning my son, letting him die," said the dead man's weeping mother, Irene Tirado, at their East Village residence.
"Now I find out it was a police officer."
Family friend Louise Velez said, "I think it's horrible when the police commit a crime like that."
The shooting occurred about 5 a.m., when Sawyer, who was alone in his own car, and Tirado, who was driving another car containing two passengers, pulled off the southbound FDR when police funneled traffic toward the 116th Street exit and First Avenue because of a fatal motorcycle accident.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Tirado refused to let Sawyer's car pass when they were getting off at the exit, and that soon afterward, as their cars headed north on First Avenue, Tirado swerved in front of Sawyer and slammed on his brakes.
When Sawyer, a four-year veteran who was in plainclothes, got out of his car and approached the other vehicle on foot, according to Browne. Tirado then reached toward the back seat and pretended to pull out a gun, extended his arm and pointed his fingers at the cop, and made the reference to "Mr. Ruger," Browne said.
Ruger is a gun manufacturer.
Sawyer then pulled his pistol and shot Tirado at least once, hitting him in the torso. The cop then drove off.
Tirado was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he died.
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PRETEND-GUN SHOOTING LEADS TO REAL FATAL ONE
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