The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A police officer who implicated himself in the fatal shooting of an unarmed motorist may have a claim of self defense, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
Relatives and friends of the motorist on Tuesday were questioning why Officer Sean Sawyer was not immediately arrested and charged after surrendering in the fatal shooting.
“Where there is a claim of self-defense, as there is in this case, there is usually no immediate arrest,” responded Robert M. Morgenthau, the district attorney said on Tuesday.
Jayson Tirado, 25, was killed during a traffic dispute with the officer, who was off-duty and driving his personal car, early Sunday in East Harlem, police said.
Tirado apparently refused to let the officer’s SUV merge with traffic onto the exit ramp. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that when the officer followed Tirado to the detour, “words were exchanged.”
Tirado apparently gestured at the off-duty officer as if he had a gun _ though he was unarmed _ and police were investigating whether Sawyer responded by firing at least one shot at the driver, striking him in the torso, before leaving the scene.
Police say a passenger in the victim’s car claimed to be too drunk to know what happened.
Sawyer has made no official statements to police or to prosecutors, but answered reporters’ questions as he left his apartment in Upper Manhattan on Tuesday.
“Of course I feel bad about it,” he said as he walked out his front door. “The guy was a human being.”
“It was a loss of life. I wish it would have been different,” he added before boarding a subway train.
Prosecutors said there may be enough evidence that Sawyer may have been justified when he fired at Tirado’s vehicle. Morgenthau said the case would be referred to a grand jury, which will determine if charges should be brought against Sawyer.
Tirado’s mother, Irene, lashed out at Sawyer, saying, “I don’t want to know him. I can’t forgive him. I don’t want him to be a police officer ever again.”
The officer, who has been on the force since 2004, was suspended without pay and his gun taken away from him pending any action by the district attorney’s office.