Oct 24, 2007 9:26 am US/Eastern
Road Rage Cop Speaks Out On Fatal Shooting
'I Wish It Would Have Been Different'
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Sean Sawyer allegedly shot Jayson Tirado during a traffic dispute on Sunday, Oct. 21.
CBS
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Jayson Tirado was gunned down following an apparent incident of road rage.
CBS
An NYPD undercover officer may face criminal charges following a deadly case of road rage, and CBS 2 was first to report his public comments about the tragic incident.
On early Sunday morning, 25-year-old Jayson Tirado was shot in the torso after being involved in a traffic dispute with another man. Tirado later died from the gunshot wound, and according to police, the man who pulled the trigger was 34-year-old undercover NYPD narcotics officer, Sean Sawyer.
CBS 2 Investigative Reporter Scott Weinberger caught up with Sawyer outside of his Upper West Side apartment. Sawyer spoke publicly about the tragic event for the first time.
Though he wouldn't comment on the investigation or the events of the incident, he was visibly upset by what happened.
"This guy is a human being, of course you're going to feel bad," Sawyer said.
When asked if he had anything to say to Tirado's family, Sawyer replied: "I just wish it would have been different."
CBS 2 has learned the altercation started on the southbound FDR as traffic was being diverted at 116th Street. The dispute stemmed from a situation at the exit ramp merge that turned deadly six blocks further on.
Tirado's friends say a yellow SUV tried to cut its way into a caravan of four cars and that driver got angry, pulled out a gun and fired.
But police say there is also another version of the story. Sawyer apparently claims after he cut in to the line he was chased and the driver of the other car pretended to have a gun, which was why he pulled out his weapon.
Both versions end the same way, though, with Tirado and Sawyer leaving the scene.
Sawyer turned himself in to a marked patrol car some 20 hours later and underwent extensive questioning by the NYPD and telling police "that he may have shot somebody," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Sawyer has yet be charged with a crime.
A candlelight vigil was held Monday night for Tirado on 1st Avenue, near where the incident took place.
Tirado's mother was stricken with grief over her son's death and voiced her outrage to CBS 2. She says this is the second son she has lost after Jayson's older brother passed away two years ago from Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"My son was a good kid. I want [Sawyer] fired. I won't rest," she told CBS 2. "They have not called me, they have not come to my house, they have not told me when my son died, what time."
Tirado had been living with his companion and his 5-year-old daughter in a Lower East Side apartment. Relatives were furious over the incident.
"Yeah, we're all angry," said Ricardo Ramos, Tirado's cousin. "His mother's angry. I'm angry. His daughter doesn't even understand what happened here and we gotta explain it to her as soon as she's old enough to understand."
Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 for the latest in this developing story.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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