CBS 2 News This Morning

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Ricardo Edwards was an extremely proud father, and convinced his son Omar was the best in the world. The police officer's father on Friday told CBS 2 his son was the greatest, and recalled his childhood days.

"He was a wonderful child when he was small. When he was a baby, he was wonderful," Edwards told CBS 2 the morning after Omar was gunned down by a fellow officer shortly after leaving his Harlem station.

At his home on Chauncey Street, Officer Edwards lived with his newly-married wife and two children – a year-and-a-half-old boy, and a 7-month-old girl. His mother, Natalia Harding, lives across the hall.

"Right now we keep talking to her, trying to keep her mind off it," said Jerome Harding, Edwards' uncle. "Sometimes she breaks down crying. Last night she cried a lot."

Neighbors say Harding always worried about her son's safety for the two years that he was with the NYPD, staying up all night until he came home.

Harding told CBS 2 the family is originally from Panama.

The 25-year-old Edwards was on the police force for two years in the housing bureau and was also on the police department football team. He had always hoped to be a cop, according Curtis Lucas, who works at a nearby barber shop and knew Edwards his entire life.

"He said he thought this would be the best job to support his family and make a career of it," Lucas told CBS 2.

All of his neighbors spoke glowingly of the fallen officer.

"I moved over here like 17 years ago when Omar was 7-years-old and [he was] a very good kid. [He was] in sports; a family man; loved everyone. He never got in trouble," said Ottoway Williams, one of his neighbors.

Felicia Taylor said Edwards' mother supported her when she lost her own son to gun violence.

"We're losing our kids on this block alone. We lost one 22-[year-old], my son 22, her son 25, another one 23, just in this close knit block to some kind of violence, related to violence – a crime-related situation, you know," she told CBS 2.

Some worry about how Omar's mother will manage the loss.

"She was distraught, very distraught – it's a tragedy," neighbor Dr. Kirt Gonzales says. "His mom, who spoke to us this morning, said she can't understand if they see running, why didn't they shoot him in the leg, not the chest."

Outside his building, as friends lit candles in Edwards' memory, they talked of what a great person he was.

"Everybody on the block loved him long before he became a police officer," friend Thomas Dukes said. "He was a very loving guy. We were just talking about the game. He had just had a new born kid. He didn't deserve this."

"Don't they have some kind of procedures, [to] stop and say 'freeze'?" neighbor Tasha Dukes said. "I think they just saw a black man running, no questions asked."

But a neighbor, a 20-year NYPD veteran, said he's waiting until all the facts are in.

"Don't rush to judgment. Let them complete their investigation. That's what you have to do," nearby resident Darnell James said.

Still, most people are using their time to talk about the kind of person Edwards was.

"I'm really going to miss him. He always had something nice to say," said neighbor and friend Harold Allen. "He wanted everyone to do well. He takes care of himself. He was the type of guy who would give the shirt off his back to you. He was dedicated to his work, his family, his mother and his community. He wanted to make sure the community was safe around him."

Added Ocean Hill resident Rick Ford: "He was a friend of everyone on the block. He grew up with us. He was a good kid. He tried to do a job. I don't know what else to say."

Officer Edwards' father-in-law was also an officer and served on the NYPD for 19 years.

CBS 2's Magee Hickey and John Slattery contributed to this report.

  

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