An off-duty police officer who shot a man dead in a road rage incident will avoid criminal charges after a grand jury voted not to indict him, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, announced yesterday.

According to grand jury testimony, on October 21, Sean Sawyer, 34, an undercover narcotics officer in Queens, verbally abused and threatened to kill Jayson Tirado, 25, after Tirado cut in front of Officer Sawyer’s car on 116th Street and FDR Drive. After the exchange, Tirado sped through red lights to catch up with Officer Sawyer’s vehicle and taunted him, asking, “Want to see my new Ruger?” while extending his arm as if to suggest he was holding a gun. Officer Sawyer fired two shots toward his car in response, fatally wounding the unarmed Tirado in the right shoulder, then drove away from the scene and disappeared for 19 hours before turning himself in.

It is not a crime for police to flee the scene of a shooting and not immediately report it, Mr. Morgenthau said. He suggested that legislation be enacted to make such actions illegal.

“I’m sure that most people would be shocked to learn that it is not a crime for a police officer to leave the scene of a shooting without reporting it as soon as practicable,” Mr. Morgenthau said in a statement. “I share their outrage. But that is the law.”

Officer Sawyer is currently suspended from the police department with pay and will face an administrative review. He could be dismissed from the force over the incident.