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by Pablo Guzmán
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Three of the six suspects charged with the beating of off-duty Police Officer Eric Hernandez inside the White Castle on Webster Avenue in The Bronx just before 5 a.m. on Saturday, January 28th, made statements to the D.A. that were recorded, inside the interrogation room of the 46th Precinct. CBS 2 has obtained a copy.

We first broadcast excerpts Friday night at 11, and again early Saturday morning. While these are not "confessions," in the usual sense, they are the kind of admissions lawyers on each side will use in court to make their case for or against all six.

Seen on the videotape are Edwin Rivera, 25, who is at the center of everything that happened, because he is the one who gets into it first with Officer Hernandez, and who admits he threw the first punch; Nelson Rodriguez, also 25; and Darryl Massey, 22.

All six knew each other, and had been at a strip club across the street from the White Castle called "Jet Set" before getting something to eat. Eric Hernandez had gone to two or three bars and, according to police sources, was intoxicated by the time he enters the White Castle at ten to five in the morning.

All this is important to know, to understand what happened next. As is evident on the White Castle surveillance video which police released soon after the incident, Hernandez three times leaves the restaurant, only to come back in and continue arguing with Rivera. Apparently over some macho "you cutting in front of me?" "who do you think you are?" type thing.

However, defense lawyers are jumping on statements each suspect made individually which appear to show that, one, Hernandez never identified himself as a cop; and two, at one point, they say, they thought he flashed a gun inside his waistband. At that hour, in that neighborhood, they say, they had to act first. And so after Rivera hits him, the others jump in.

But the videotaped statements also show what the D.A.'s probable counter-strategy will be to the suspects' insistence that (off-duty) Officer Hernandez, they say, flashed a gun. These interviews inside the 46th Precinct came after the suspects had been picked up or surrendered, and after they had had a chance to see television reports or read newspaper accounts about what happened.

By then, they knew that Officer Hernandez was shot while holding a gun to someone's head. The D.A. will probably assert at trial that the suspects came up with the idea that Hernandez flashed a gun at them inside the White Castle to undermine their rationale for why they took him on (in turn, the defense will say the innocent man Hernandez had the gun on, and his friend, also say Hernandez had a gun in his waistband).

Towards the end of the interviews, Senior Assistant Bronx D.A. Nancy Borko, who is leading the questioning, asks the suspects if they have seen or read any news accounts. While clearly she's trying to lay groundwork about the gun, the suspects say that's when they learn the guy they beat up was a cop. And why some quickly volunteered to surrender.

I have also learned that the D.A. has at least one witness who was at the White Castle who will say Eric Hernandez at one point did say he was a police officer. Whether that person's statement will stand against the many others who remember it differently is a matter for the trial.

On the video statements, after the suspects give their versions of what preceded the fight, and then, describe the melee, they recall the horrible way it ended. Minutes after the group finished pounding Officer Hernandez, he staggered outside.

White Castle managers have already called 911. Hernandez grabs an innocent person in the parking lot, thinking he's an attacker, and pulls his gun. On the D.A's video, the suspects describe, vividly, what happens next: "They had their guns out." "The cops said, 'Drop your weapon! Drop your weapon!' " "I ducked. But I heard the shots. I looked up. He looked like he was dead." Nelson Rodriguez said, "I ducked. Because a bullet has no name."

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