Metro

NYPD cop who shot unarmed GCP driver was ‘fearing for his life,’ sources say

Noel Polanco

Noel Polanco

The cop insists he was “fearing for his life.”

Elite NYPD unit Detective Hassan Hamdy believed that Army National Guardsman Noel Polanco “was reaching for a weapon” right before Hamdy shot the unarmed Queens man during a traffic stop on the Grand Central Parkway, sources familiar with the cop’s account told The Post yesterday.

Hamdy claims that Polanco, 22, “repeatedly” ignored commands to pull over on the highway after careening between two police vehicles early Thursday morning, sources said.

When Hamdy’s Emergency Service Unit truck and another ESU vehicle blocked in Polanco’s speeding 2012 Honda and pulled it over, Hamdy got out, “comes around to the passenger side of the Honda and . . . repeatedly orders the driver to show his hands,” one source said.

“[Polanco] refuses to show his hands and instead makes a hand motion down to the floor of the vehicle.

“Believing that the driver was reaching for a weapon — and therefore fearing for his life — one round was discharged,” the source said.

Polanco — who worked at both a Queens auto dealership and a hookah bar in addition to his Guard service — died soon afterward, despite cops’ efforts on the scene to save him.

The source said that when Polanco’s car was searched, a carpenter’s “screw gun” was found in the driver’s floor area.

A four-volt, black and yellow Ryobi power tool was found in the car, but no weapon.

Another source who has spoken to Hamdy said the cop is “very upset” about Polanco’s death, even though he believes the shooting was justified.

The case is being probed by the Queens DA’s Office and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Polanco’s friend, a bartender named Diane DeFerrari, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat at the time, has said Hamdy, 39, fired at the same moment that cops were ordering them to show their hands — and that Polanco’s “hands were on the steering wheel at all times.”

Another woman, off-duty cop Vanessa Rodriguez, was sleeping in the back seat of Polanco’s car when he was shot. Both DeFerrari and Rodriguez, through her sister yesterday, said that after the shooting, a cop hissed at them, “Your friend shot himself.”

The Medical Examiner’s Office said the bullet that killed Polanco “came from the front in a downward trajectory and entered his abdomen and injured his aorta and other major blood vessels.” It’s unclear from that whether he may have been reaching down when he took the bullet.

Hamdy’s lawyer, Philip Karasyk, said, “We once again ask the citizens of New York to withhold judgment until all the facts are known.” He added that the “threat” to Hamdy escalated “as the perpetrator refused to comply with a series of police commands and acts contrary to how a reasonable person would act.”

Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino called DeFerrari’s version of events “absurd.”

“Who is she kidding? No cop is going to shoot a person whose both hands are visible on a steering wheel,” he said.

Polanco’s mom, Cecilia Reyes, said her son’s dream was to join the NYPD after serving on active duty in the US Army.

“I want justice,’’ she said. “His life was taken short just because they couldn’t think? No.”

Reyes met with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at her home yesterday, sources said.

The city has twice settled lawsuits involving civil-rights violations by Hamdy and cops with him.

Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese, Jennifer Bain, Georgett Roberts and Kevin Sheehan