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It was a situation rife with danger when off-duty Police Officer Omar Edwards was shot by a fellow NYPD officer on Thursday night. Plainclothes policemen confronted an off-duty policeman who was holding a gun chasing a man down the street.

Whether the officers in question followed procedure is not yet clear, but according to the NYPD Patrol Guide, it was up to Omar Edwards to prove he was a cop.

The guide reads, "In any confrontation, the burden of proving identity rests on the confronted officer, whether on or off duty."

In addition, that officer must "remain motionless even if it means a fleeing suspect may escape," as well as "obey all directions from the officer making the challenge."

The guidelines also state the confronting officer must identify himself in a loud clear voice, stating "Police! Don't move."

"This would be the procedure: to identify themselves as police officers, to ask the other officer to drop his gun," said Professor Maki Haberfeld of John Jay College.

But Edwards may have been thrown off by the fact the confronting officers were not in uniform, and may simply have been lost in the heat of the moment.

"He might have not heard them, he might have disregarded what was said, couldn't understand what was said," said Haberfeld. "If somebody's chasing after someone with a gun, the physiological and psychological effects of this are beyond my ability even to explain."

It is not the first such incident of friendly fire in the city. Transit Officer Desmond Robinson was shot by another policeman, Peter DelDebbio, on a subway platform in 1994.

"The similarities [between the shootings of Robinson and Edwards] are that there was a white police officer who saw a black man with a gun, and who immediately assumed that that person was a criminal," said attorney Brian O'Dwyer, who represented Robinson.

Haberfeld said maybe more important than race was the environment - in this case, the streets of East Harlem.

"If you were to ask me if the same thing would have happened in front of John Jay College here or maybe on 57th Street and Fifth avenue, I would say maybe not," said Haberfeld.

The officers involved in the shooting have been put on modified duty, pending the investigation by both the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney.