Oct 24, 2007 2:43 pm US/Eastern
Fiance Of Road Rage Victim Lashes Out At Officer
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Jayson Tirado died after being shot during a traffic dispute with an undercover NYPD officer.
CBS
The fiance of a motorist killed in a road rage incident involving an off-duty policeman said tearfully Wednesday that the officer should have identified himself.
"All you had to do is show your badge; it would have changed everything," Lisa Claudio said of Officer Sean Sawyer. Claudio made her remarks while appearing with her child and supporters on the East Harlem block where Jayson Tirado died early Sunday.
"I don't even know what to tell my daughter; she's only 4," said Claudio.
Relatives and friends of Tirado, 25, have questioned why Sawyer was not immediately arrested after surrendering.
"All we are asking is that Sean Sawyer be treated like any of the rest of us," said Charlie King, acting director of the National Action Network. "If he felt the shooting was justified, tell me why he fled the scene. Why didn't he stay on the scene and do what any responsible police officer would do? It's that simple."
On Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said: "Where there is a claim of self-defense, as there is in this case, there is usually no immediate arrest."
Morgenthau said a grand jury will determine whether charges should be brought against Sawyer. Tirado apparently refused to let the officer's SUV merge with traffic onto an exit ramp. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that when Sawyer followed Tirado to the detour, "words were exchanged."
Tirado apparently gestured at the off-duty officer as if he had a gun -- though he was unarmed -- and police were investigating whether Sawyer responded by firing at least one shot at the driver, striking him in the torso, before leaving the scene.
Sawyer told reporters on Tuesday: "Of course I feel bad about it. ... The guy was a human being. ... I wish it would have been different."
Tirado's mother, Irene, also has lashed out at Sawyer, saying, "I don't want to know him. I can't forgive him. I don't want him to be a police officer ever again."
The officer, who has been on the force since 2004, is suspended without pay while the matter is investigated.
Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 for the latest in this developing story.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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