First we have brother getting shot by other brothers, then we got brother getting shot by white boys, then we have brothers getting shot by police officers and now we got Black police officers getting shot by white police officers...In the words of Kanye West "Racism still alive they just be concealing it"

Omar J. Edwards, 25, was shot by a another off duty cop this past week. Edwards, who drew his gun while chasing a thief, was shot to death by a white patrolling officer who drove by and saw the pursuit. He was just two streets North of the Harlem housing police station where he worked. Shout out to LiveSteez for the story...

NYPD officer Omar J. Edwards, 25, had just wrapped his shift Thursday night when he noticed a man had broken into his car, by busting the passenger window, and was still rifling through his belongings. According to Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Edwards drew his gun and chased the man who escaped apprehension by slipping out of his sweater, reports the Associated Press.

A sergeant and two plainclothes officers from the nearby 25th Precinct anti-crime unit took notice of the chase from the unmarked vehicle they were riding in, made a U-turn and began to chase the pursuit. When the officers caught up with the two men, one of the officers jumped from the car and fired his weapon six times. Whether the officers failed or made a point to announce themselves remains a mystery at this time.

"If a police officer sees someone with a gun, you don't just fire without asking questions or trying to apprehend the person," said the victim's father, Ricardo Edwards, 72. "If the person was firing at a police officer, I understand."

"I'm hurt that they took my son. That's my baby they took from me. And all I got was his last hug and kiss when he went to work [tonight] and he said, 'Ma, I'll see you when I come home,' " Natalia Harding said between sobs Friday morning at her Brooklyn apartment.

Medical examiner Ellen Borakove said the official cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, but noted the bullet entered the left side of Edwards back before hitting his heart and left lung. The autopsy results also found two additional gunshot wounds, one in his left hip and the other deep inside his left arm.

A witness who lives in a nearby housing project says the shots sounded as if they were just outside her window. She and other people who live in the area argue the role of racial profiling in this case.

"I think they just saw a guy with a gun. How's that cop (who shot him) supposed to know he was a police officer," said Carmen Romero. On the other hand, she acknowledged the sentiment in many black communities across the country.

"I'm not saying it was," she said. "All the white cop saw was a black man with a gun. Pow, pow, pow."

Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton said he received several phone calls "from black officers who were at the precinct and were alarmed by the shooting of Omar Edwards." Sharpton express concern about "a growing pattern of of black officers being killed with the assumption that they are the criminals."

Sharpton has called for a federal investigation into the shooting.

"Can police investigate themselves without fairly and impartially?" he asked. "It would be extremely difficult at best and unlikely in fact."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said investigators are reviewing surveillance tapes, interviewing witnesses including the man Edwards was chasing.

"The only thing that can come out of this is to improve procedures so perhaps it doesn't happen again," Bloomberg said.

Edwards had been on the force for two years. He was recently married and had two small children.