As the investigation into the deadly shooting of off-duty Police Officer Omar Edwards by a fellow officer continued, community activists and local leaders held a vigil and a march in Harlem Saturday.

The Reverend Al Sharpton and State Senator Eric Adams were among 200 participants in the rally at the National Action Network headquarters and the subsequent march down 125th Street.

The group reached the corner of 125th Street and Second Avenue, where Edwards was shot in the back and killed, said a brief prayer and held a moment of silence.

Sharpton said a federal investigation of the incident is needed.

"We need the federal government to investigate the pattern," he said at the National Action Network rally. "There is something in the pattern that deals with the [police] training, that deals with race and those who are doing the training cannot correct and look at themselves."

Officials say the 25-year-old housing policeman had finished his shift and was in plainclothes on 125th Street at around 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Edwards then saw a man rummaging through his car.

Police say Edwards confronted the man, who investigators identified as Miguel Santiago, but sources say is really named Migual Goitia.

Authorities say Goitia ran away and Edwards chased after him with his gun drawn, although Edwards never fired.

Police say a plainclothes anti-crime team in an unmarked car saw Edwards running and followed him.

A white plainclothes officer, who sources identify as 30-year-old Andrew Dunton, got out of the car and fired six times. The shots hit Edwards in the arm, the back and the hip.

It is unknown whether the policemen identified themselves, but according to police procedure, Edwards was supposed to have identified himself to the policemen as an officer.

Edwards, who was not wearing his bulletproof vest, was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he does not believe an independent investigation is necessary, and that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau would look at the case fairly.

"If the federal government wants to do something, that's up to them. But I think that Bob Morgenthau has shown over many decades that he is independent and he will do a thorough, competent investigation," said the mayor. "And if there is something criminally wrong, he'll take the appropriate steps."

Governor David Paterson said people should not rush to judge whether the shooting was racially motivated.

"I know these type of incidents have happened a lot. They are reflection decisions, probably an accident," said Paterson. "But I think it's most fair to everyone involved who is grieving at this time to go through a full investigation and not be commenting on information that isn't firmly established."

Congressman Charles Rangel said such shootings happen too often in the black community, and he called for an independent investigation.

Rangel also alluded to the shooting when asked about the president's visit to the city Saturday.

"Make sure he doesn't run around East Harlem unidentified," said the congressman.

Police say the officer who fired at Edwards has been on the force for four years.

Meanwhile, as of Saturday evening, Goitia was not yet charged in relation to breaking into Edwards's car.

Sources say Goitia has been arrested five other times for drugs, assault, robbery, criminal trespass and bail jumping.

On Friday, Harlem community leaders gathered at a vigil for Edwards outside of his housing precinct and friends and neighbors remembered the fallen officer as a family man.

Friends say Edwards, a Brooklyn resident who joined the police force in 2007, married last month and is survived by a one-year-old son and seven-month-old son.

Edwards's father-in-law is a 19-year-veteran of the NYPD.

"I feel very sad about it because he grew up in my hands," said neighbor Reverend Emanuel.

"I feel bad for his sons," said friend Ubeaka Mckinney. "He has two boys, I feel bad for his boys and his mother, his grandmother and his brother, the whole family."

"It's a tragedy all the way around because everyone loses in this," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly paid a visit yesterday to Edwards' family in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn.

"I spoke to the officer's mother and I also talked to his wife," said Kelly. "It was the first time opportunity I had to speak to his mother. So it's a very, very sad occasion."

"We're trying to hold on to each other. It's not easy," said Ricardo Edwards, the victim's father.

The officers involved with the shooting were put on modified duty, pending the investigation by the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney.