Noel Polanco (G.N.Miller/New York Post)
TRAGEDY: Detective Hassan Hamdy (left) fatally shot Guardsman Noel Polanco on the Grand Central Parkway. (
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A Queens grand jury declined to indict a cop who gunned down an unarmed National Guardsman last October, authorities said.
The jury didn’t find enough evidence to charge Detective Hassan Hamdy with a crime after he shot Noel Polanco, 22, in October during a traffic stop on the Grand Central Parkway.
The cop’s teary testimony likely swayed jurors, said Hamdy’s lawyer, Philip Karasyk.
“It was no bull. I think that was the compelling factor. I think the jurors believed him,” he said, adding the NYPD Firearms Discharge Board will investigate the shooting.
Hamdy, an Emergency Service Unit cop, stopped Polanco for speeding and erratic driving on Oct. 4.
Polanco allegedly refused to show his hands and lunged toward the floor, Karasyk said, which is when Hamdy fired the shot into the car.
But a passenger in the car said Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel the whole time.
Cops found no weapon in the car — only an electric drill under the seat.
Sanford Rubenstein, the Polanco family’s lawyer, suggested the family might pursue civil action.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“The family in the near future will . . . determine the best way to move forward in their quest for justice.”
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who had promised a thorough investigation, would not comment on the grand jury’s decision, but he defended his office’s handling of the investigation.
“Mr. Polanco’s death remains a tragedy, and I again express my sympathy to his family for their loss,” Brown said in a statement.
The NYPD declined to comment.
Polanco worked as a porter at the Paragon Honda dealership in Woodside, Queens, and had a side job overseeing the hookah-pipe business at the Ice Lounge nightclub in Astoria.
He visited the bar the night of the shooting to give a pal a ride home to the LeFrak City housing complex in Corona.
A witness said Polanco had a beer but was not drunk.
“He is not a heavy drinker,” bar manager Moez Abouelnaga said. “Last night, I do know he had one Corona.”
Additional reporting by Dan MacLeod