Unarmed Man Fatally Shot by Police on Queens Highway
A police officer fatally shot an unarmed 22-year-old man early Thursday morning during a traffic stop on the side of a highway in Queens, the police said. The shooting occurred at 5:15 a.m. on the Grand Central Parkway near La Guardia Airport after the police pulled over the driver, who had twice cut between two police vehicles from the Emergency Services Unit.
Noel Polanco, said to be an Army reservist, was shot in the abdomen; he was pronounced dead at New York Hospital Queens, the police said. The detective, Hassan Hamdy, a 39-year-old officer who joined the force in 1998, fired a single shot that hit the driver when it was said Polanco went to reach for something.
Hassan Hamdy is known by other residents as well:
A Queens grandmother recalled Friday how she came face to face with the NYPD detective now under investigation for fatally shooting a young National Guardsman.
Dorothy Garcia said Det. Hassan Hamdy was one of the officers who barged into her house five years ago and brutalized her grandson, Tyrell.
“I’ll never forget his face,” Garcia, 74, said. “He told us they didn’t need a search warrant.”
Tyrell Garcia’s grandmother Dorothy Garcia says her grandson Tyrell Garcia was brutalized in a 2007 incident that involved NYPD Det. Hassan Hamdy and resulted in a $235,000 settlement with the city. The city admitted no wrongdoing.
Hamdy, now 39, was part of a team of officers who arrested Tyrell Garcia in 2007 on what turned out to be bogus charges.
This is a terrible loss of life that seems to be the result of a fast shooting officer once again.
Our hearts go out to the Polanco family.
