Two NYC Officers Dead in Ambush-style Shooting
Melanie Eversley, Katharine Lackey and Trevor Hughes
USATODAY
8:54 p.m. EST December 20, 2014
NEW YORK — Two New York City police officers died after being shot "execution-style" in their parked patrol car Saturday.
In a somber press conference, New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the two officers were deliberately targeted because they were cops. He also acknowledged the danger officers take as part of the "thin blue line between us and anarchy."
"They were, quite simply, assassinated, targeted for their uniform and the responsibility they embraced," Bratton said. "Both were ambushed and murdered."
Bratton said the attacker approached the officers' vehicle from the passenger side and opened fire, shooting his weapon several times. The officers, Wenjin Liu and Raphael Ramos, "never had an opportunity to draw their weapons" and were "killed with no warning, no provocation," he said.
"They may have never even seen their assailant, their murderer," Bratton said.
The suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, fled to a nearby subway station, where he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Bratton said.
Earlier Saturday, Brinsley shot his former girlfriend, injuring her at a Baltimore County, Md. residence, Bratton said. He also posted on the victim's Instagram account, where his comments indicated Brinsley had a "very strong bias against" police, he said. The posting will be investigated as authorities search for a motive.
The New York shooting happened around 3 p.m. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues. Bratton said they have seen no connection to terrorist groups or any other organized entity.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the attack was an attack on all New Yorkers.
"When a police officer is murdered, it tears at the foundation of our society. It is an attack on all of us," said de Blasio, who recently had a rocky relationship with rank-and-file police officers over what they see as his lack of support. "When they are attacked, it is an attack on the very concept of decency."
The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the city's main police union, blamed de Blasio for the shootings.
"The mayor's hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies," a statement from the association read, according to The New York Times, "and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a 'wartime' police department. We will act accordingly."
The last time an NYPD officer was shot to death in the line of duty was in 2011.
Police blocked off a several-block radius around the shooting scene and shut off trains to the subway station nearby. Helicopters hovered overhead while residents peered over police tape in curiosity.
Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Derrick McKie said he was coming out of a restaurant about a block from the scene when he heard four or five gunshots. He saw police cars speeding and rushed to the commotion. McKie said he saw one officer being carried into an ambulance in a stretcher.
"He was lifeless — he wasn't moving," said McKie, 49. "Blood covered his face."
"It was very chaotic, police scrambling," he added.
Eddie Perez stood outside the police tape taking pictures of the distant investigation scene with his phone. He grew up in the housing projects adjacent to the shooting scene and said the neighborhood was never like it was Saturday night when he was growing up.
"It looks like a war zone — disgusting," said Perez, 61, who now lives in the Bergen Beach section of Brooklyn. "It's just senseless."
In a statement and series of tweets, Rev. Al Sharpton condemned the violence. Sharpton and his National Action Network have been prominent voices in calling for police reform following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
"I am outraged at the killing of 2 police officers in Brooklyn. That is why we stress non violence as the only way to fight for justice," he tweeted Saturday evening. "An eye for an (eye) leaves the whole world blind. We all at NAN express our prayers and condolences to the families of the 2 NYC officers."
The shooting comes at a time when police across the USA are being criticized for their tactics following widely publicized deaths of unarmed black men.
A little more than a week after a Missouri grand jury decided in November not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Brown, a New York grand jury chose earlier this month not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Garner.
The decisions kicked off widespread, ongoing demonstrations across the country that have included protests, marches and die-ins inside malls and other buildings and along major highways, where protesters have brought traffic to a standstill.
Coco Reds, a Bedford-Stuyvesant resident, said the area is as safe as any other in New York but tensions have been heightened by gentrification. Reds, a black man and a construction worker, said he has been taken into custody and later released by police when he was doing nothing wrong.
"That's what the police presence is for — in order to keep people like me away from people like them," Reds said, referring to newer neighborhood residents.
Contributing: Kevin McCoy in New York City, Trevor Hughes in Denver; The Associated Press
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| New York cops swarm through area where officers were killed. |
USATODAY
8:54 p.m. EST December 20, 2014
NEW YORK — Two New York City police officers died after being shot "execution-style" in their parked patrol car Saturday.
In a somber press conference, New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the two officers were deliberately targeted because they were cops. He also acknowledged the danger officers take as part of the "thin blue line between us and anarchy."
"They were, quite simply, assassinated, targeted for their uniform and the responsibility they embraced," Bratton said. "Both were ambushed and murdered."
Bratton said the attacker approached the officers' vehicle from the passenger side and opened fire, shooting his weapon several times. The officers, Wenjin Liu and Raphael Ramos, "never had an opportunity to draw their weapons" and were "killed with no warning, no provocation," he said.
"They may have never even seen their assailant, their murderer," Bratton said.
The suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, fled to a nearby subway station, where he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Bratton said.
Earlier Saturday, Brinsley shot his former girlfriend, injuring her at a Baltimore County, Md. residence, Bratton said. He also posted on the victim's Instagram account, where his comments indicated Brinsley had a "very strong bias against" police, he said. The posting will be investigated as authorities search for a motive.
The New York shooting happened around 3 p.m. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues. Bratton said they have seen no connection to terrorist groups or any other organized entity.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the attack was an attack on all New Yorkers.
"When a police officer is murdered, it tears at the foundation of our society. It is an attack on all of us," said de Blasio, who recently had a rocky relationship with rank-and-file police officers over what they see as his lack of support. "When they are attacked, it is an attack on the very concept of decency."
The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the city's main police union, blamed de Blasio for the shootings.
"The mayor's hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies," a statement from the association read, according to The New York Times, "and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a 'wartime' police department. We will act accordingly."
The last time an NYPD officer was shot to death in the line of duty was in 2011.
Police blocked off a several-block radius around the shooting scene and shut off trains to the subway station nearby. Helicopters hovered overhead while residents peered over police tape in curiosity.
Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Derrick McKie said he was coming out of a restaurant about a block from the scene when he heard four or five gunshots. He saw police cars speeding and rushed to the commotion. McKie said he saw one officer being carried into an ambulance in a stretcher.
"He was lifeless — he wasn't moving," said McKie, 49. "Blood covered his face."
"It was very chaotic, police scrambling," he added.
Eddie Perez stood outside the police tape taking pictures of the distant investigation scene with his phone. He grew up in the housing projects adjacent to the shooting scene and said the neighborhood was never like it was Saturday night when he was growing up.
"It looks like a war zone — disgusting," said Perez, 61, who now lives in the Bergen Beach section of Brooklyn. "It's just senseless."
In a statement and series of tweets, Rev. Al Sharpton condemned the violence. Sharpton and his National Action Network have been prominent voices in calling for police reform following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
"I am outraged at the killing of 2 police officers in Brooklyn. That is why we stress non violence as the only way to fight for justice," he tweeted Saturday evening. "An eye for an (eye) leaves the whole world blind. We all at NAN express our prayers and condolences to the families of the 2 NYC officers."
The shooting comes at a time when police across the USA are being criticized for their tactics following widely publicized deaths of unarmed black men.
A little more than a week after a Missouri grand jury decided in November not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Brown, a New York grand jury chose earlier this month not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Garner.
The decisions kicked off widespread, ongoing demonstrations across the country that have included protests, marches and die-ins inside malls and other buildings and along major highways, where protesters have brought traffic to a standstill.
Coco Reds, a Bedford-Stuyvesant resident, said the area is as safe as any other in New York but tensions have been heightened by gentrification. Reds, a black man and a construction worker, said he has been taken into custody and later released by police when he was doing nothing wrong.
"That's what the police presence is for — in order to keep people like me away from people like them," Reds said, referring to newer neighborhood residents.
Contributing: Kevin McCoy in New York City, Trevor Hughes in Denver; The Associated Press
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