The unfolding story about the mistaken-identity, fatal police shooting in Harlem couldn’t be more sorrowful, or more familiar. We wrote about it on the Opinion page today. Obviously, there are many parallels between the death of NYPD Police Officer Omar J. Edwards, 25, and the death of our own Christopher Ridley, the Mount Vernon police detective who was also shot dead by brother police officers,  in White Plains in January 2008. Both officers were young, black, in plainclothes and wielding their weapons, when they were mistaken for perpetrators.

I haven’t gotten to today’s headlines yet, but from all appearances yesterday, it seemed that lots of community leaders and politicians, from Al Sharpton to Mayor Bloomberg, were saying helpful things. Sharpton was appropriately curious about the facts—who did and said what? were policies followed? etc.—but called for calm. He did the same in the tense aftermath of the Ridley shooting, even when others recklessly deemed the shooting an “execution.”

Bloomberg, mindful of the racial dynamics—Edwards is black and the shooting officer white—reached out to community leaders to express his sorrow and concern, and pledged to get to the bottom of the matter. That’s the best you can hope for in these cases. And many of Edwards’ colleagues had positive things to say about the officers, describing him as one who sought to build bridges in communities. An big loss, in ways too numerous to count.

I wrote about New York City’s experience in these so-called “confrontation situation” shootings involving plainclothes police and other officers, in the context of the Ridley shooting. You might find it helpful in understanding some of the issues in the Edwards case. Here’s the link.