The NYPD officer who fatally shot off-duty National Guardsman Noel Polanco on Grand Central Parkway last October will not be facing charges, but Polanco's family says they will continue to pursue legal action.
Detective Hassan Hamdy was accused of unlawfully opening fire on the unarmed 22-year-old near LaGuardia Airport in the early hours of October 4th; officers said Polanco was driving erratically and cut off a cop car, and Hamdy fired at Polanco through his car's window after Hamdy and several other officers tried to detain him at a traffic stop. But a Queens grand jury decided not to indict Hamdy after listening to his testimony, in which he insisted he believed Polanco was reaching for a gun under his seat. "I think the grand jury found his testimony truthful and sincere," Hamdy's lawyer, Philip Karasyk, told the Times.
But Diane DiFerrari, Polanco's front-seat passenger at the time of the shooting, doesn't agree with Hamdy's version of the events. She says both of Polanco's hands were on the steering will the whole time, and told DNAinfo she was surprised Hamdy wasn't indicted. And Polanco's family will not accept the grand jury's decision as the final ruling in their quest for justice. "The family of Noel Polanco is extremely disappointed, the Queens Grand jury did not vote to indict the Police Officer who shot and killed him," Sanford Rubinstein, the family's lawyer, told the Post. "The family will in the near future meet with their advisors to determine the best way to move forward in their quest for justice." DiFerrari has decried Hamdy's actions as "pure road rage," and family members say Polanco had been planning to return to the Army in the near future.
