A Cop's Responsibility

Based on the evidence placed before it, a Manhattan grand jury last week correctly decided not to vote for criminal charges against a Police Officer, Sean Sawyer, who fatally shot another motorist last October following a dispute that began when that motorist, Jayson Tirado, cut him off in the pre-dawn hours.

One of Mr. Tirado's passengers supported the account given by Mr. Sawyer, who was off duty at the time, that Mr. Tirado had yelled to the cop, "Want to see my new Ruger?", then reached down and brought his arm up in mimicry of aiming a gun.

In the darkness, Officer Sawyer believed this pantomime was the prelude to Mr. Tirado shooting at him, and he fired his own off-duty gun at him.

There is some parallel to the Sean Bell shooting, which was set in motion by a friend of Mr. Bell's threatening to get a gun after a confrontation with another man outside a Queens club. In both instances, the threat proved empty but with tragic consequences. Given the reality that sometimes the posturing is backed up by action, it would have been hard to bring a criminal case against Officer Sawyer for using deadly force to protect himself against what he perceived as a threat to his life.

But the veteran cop's response after the shooting can in no way be justified: he took off and did not surface for 19 hours, at a time when it was known that Mr. Tirado had died and Officer Sawyer was being linked to the shooting.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau pointed out that leaving the scene of a shooting is not a crime, outrageous as such conduct on the part of a police officer may be. He said that his office would seek legislation to change that.

Since such a change wouldn't apply retroactively, Officer Sawyer's only legal jeopardy involves his standing in the Police Department. Newspaper stories have quoted unnamed NYPD sources saying that it was unlikely that he would emerge from a departmental trial with his job.

There is good reason to believe that he won't, starting with his lengthy disappearance after the shooting. Officer Sawyer claimed that he had not known that his bullet had struck anybody, and that he came forward once he became aware of Mr. Tirado's death. But it seems at least as likely that when he finally surrendered himself to an NYPD Sergeant, he did so because he knew he was being sought.

It would be one thing if Officer Sawyer had initially fled the scene and then returned or reported the incident a half-hour or an hour later. That might be chalked up to a moment of panic that was quickly overcome by the kicking in of his conscience and a sense of responsibility as a police officer.

The far-longer delay, however, suggests that if there hadn't been a fatality involved and a description that would lead cops in his direction, he might never have reported it. This sort of evasion would be unbecoming of an ordinary citizen; from a cop, it is simply unacceptable.