NYPD drills seek to prevent mistaken-identity shootings

By Christine Hauser
New York Times

NEW YORK — It could be just about any New York City street. There are three-story apartment buildings, parked cars and a bus. A few police officers walk a beat. It is quiet as they approach a corner. Suddenly, the officers spot a man in civilian clothes pointing a gun at another man. The officers crouch, take cover, draw their weapons and point them at the armed man.

“Police, don’t move!” one officer shouts. “Don’t turn around!”

“I am a police officer!” the man in civilian clothes responds, keeping his eyes, and gun, on the man who he says just robbed him.

That dramatic scene — a role-play exercise on Tuesday for recruits at the Police Department’s training complex in the Bronx — ended without gunfire, in contrast to the fatal shooting of Officer Omar J. Edwards in East Harlem last Thursday.

Read full story: Police drills at Rodman's Neck in Bronx seek to prevent mistaken-identity shootings