Past NYPD Friendly Fire Cases

The death of New York Police Officer Omar Edwards in an apparent case of friendly fire was not the first time an officer was gunned down by a fellow cop. Edwards was gunned down Thursday night in East Harlem by an officer in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Below are prominent past cases of friendly fire in the NYPD: 

November 1992: Officer Derwin Pannell was shot and wounded by white officers who mistook him for a mugger. Pannell was trying to arrest a fare beater at a subway station in Brooklyn.

A grand jury did not charge the two officers involved in Pannell's shooting.

August 1994: Plainclothes transit Officer Desmond Robinson was shot by a white officer on an East Side subway platform. Officer Peter Del-Debbio was convicted of second-degree assault in March 1996. Evidence showed that Del-Debbio shot Robinson several times in the back.

January 2006: Rookie officer Eric Hernandez was shot by fellow officer Alfredo Toro at a White Castle restaurant in The Bronx. Officer Toro had responed to a 911 call. Hernandez died 11 days after the shooting.

September 2007: Officer Annemarie Marchiondo was shot three times during a struggle while she tried to frisk an armed suspect in The Bronx. A ballistics report found at least one of the shots was friendly fire.

The officer involved in the Marchiondo shooting did not face disciplinary charges.

May 2009: Off-duty Officer Omar Edwards was fatally shot by a second officer while chasing a suspected thief. The investigation is ongoing.