Saturday, December 20, 2014

Two NYPD Officers 'Assassinated' While Sitting in Patrol Car in Brooklyn by Gunman Who Boasted on Instagram About 'Revenge' Killing Cops 
Ismaaiyl Brinsley is suspected in the killing of two NYPD cops.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley fired at NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in their squad car in Bedford-Stuyvesant sources said. Hours earlier, Brinsley shot his girlfriend in Baltimore and boasted in social media about wanting to kill cops. Both officers later died at Woodhull Hospital.

BY TINA MOORE , DALE W. EISINGER , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA,THOMAS TRACY , RICH SCHAPIRO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, December 20, 2014, 3:26 PM

Two NYPD cops were executed Saturday after a gang member from Baltimore trekked to Brooklyn to kill police officers in a twisted bid to avenge the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, sources told the Daily News.

The shooter — identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley— boasted about wanting to murder cops in the hours before he ambushed the officers outside the Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 2:45 p.m. — around the same time Baltimore officers sent a wanted flier to the NYPD.

“I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours...Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” Brinsley, 28, wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of a silver handgun.

He also included the sick hashtags: #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGarner #RIPMike Brown.

“This May Be My Final Post...I’m Putting Pigs In A Blanket.”

Brinsley made good on his sinister promise, firing several rounds into the patrol car parked near Myrtle and Tompkins Aves., cops and witnesses said.

Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were in the area for an anti-terrorism drill, sources said.“The perp came out of the houses, walked up behind the car and lit them up,” a high-ranking police official told The News.

"They were quite simply assassinated," said NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Brinsley then sprinted around the corner to the Myrtle-Willoughby Aves. G train subway station, with cops in close pursuit.

Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who shot two NYPD officers in the head in Brooklyn, posted messages about wanting to kill cops to his Instagram account. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who shot two NYPD officers in the head in Brooklyn, posted messages about wanting to kill cops to his Instagram account.

Brinsley, after disappearing inside the station, shot himself in the head on a subway platform, police said.

Paramedics brought Brinsley out on a stretcher and were performing CPR. But the killer, a reputed member of the gang "Black Guerilla Family," was later pronounced dead.

The mortally-wounded officers — one was on the force for seven years, the other for only two — were rushed to Woodhull Hospital. But they couldn’t be saved.

"They were struggling to get out of the car," said Courtney Felix, 23, who heard the shots from a nearby window.  They were trying to get cognizance of where they were hit."

“Every New Yorker should feel they were attacked, that our entire city was attacked, by this heinous individual,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was spotted on a PIX 11 video weaving through several cops who turned their backs on him as he made his way into the hospital.

Tensions between the police unions and the mayor have ratcheted up in recent weeks after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict an officer involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner in July.

The slayings capped a bloody day-long crime spree for Brinsley.

Hours before he showed up in Brooklyn, Brinsley shot his girlfriend about 5:45 a.m. in Owings Mill, Md., about 15 miles from Baltimore.

Details of the crime were scarce.

The 29-year-old woman, who was shot in the stomach,underwent surgery and was expected to survive, a family member told The News.

Maryland authorities refused to say if it was connected to the cop killings, but NYPD sources confirmed the link.

Brinsley stole the woman’s phone after the shooting — and headed for New York. At some point along the way, he posted a menacing update on Facebook.

“I Always Wanted To Be Known For Doing Something Right...But My Past Is Stalking Me and My Present Is Haunting Me,” it read.

“Why Live If You Don’t Love To Live,” he added in a second post, his last.

Brinsley, who was arrested on disorderly conduct charges in Georgia in 2005, also bragged about shooting his girlfriend. On his Instagram account, he posted a photo of army fatigues with apparent blood stains. “Never had a hot gun on your waist and blood on your shoe...N---a you ain’t been through what I been through you not like me and im not like you.”

Days earlier, Brinsley exhorted his Instagram followers to “Burn the Flag” in protest of the recent police killings of black men.

“Marching up and down the streets does little to nothing to bring awareness to serious matters,” he wrote. “So let’s ruffle some feathers and take it into our own hands and make them watch in horror as we burn what they represent.”

Witnesses said the two cops never had a chance.

“He just walked up and shot that cop in the head,” one man said.

Rescuers rushed to the aid of the mortally wounded officers.

“They basically dragged two cops out their car,” a second witness said. “I saw it. One was shot in the face. There was blood coming out of his face.”

A witness who identified herself as Winfree, 30, said she was awoken by the sound of gunshots. She went up to the roof to see what was happening.

“There was a cop on the ground and everyone was around him,” Winfree said.

“Someone was doing CPR on the cop. They put him on a stretcher and they ran him into an ambulance. They load him in and they hauled him away.

“There were like 75 cops here and a bunch ran toward the subway after the guy. There was a huge police presence there. Even undercovers were coming out of nowhere.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, in a statement, said Garner’s family was incensed the killer invoked his name on social media.

“I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today,” Sharpton said.

“Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases.”

Garner died after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold on Staten Island on July 17. Brown, who was unarmed, was shot dead in Ferguson, Mo. by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.

In both cases, the victims were black and the cops were white.

Grand juries did not indict either officer, sparking national protests and outrage over police treatment of minorities.

Following Saturday’s bloodshed, a parade of national and city political figures expressed condolences to the families of the slain officers.

“I condemn this afternoon's senseless shooting of two New York City police officers in the strongest possible terms," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "This was an unspeakable act of barbarism, and I was deeply saddened to hear of the loss of these two brave officers in the line of duty."

“We will never forget the sacrifice these brave officers made to keep our city safe,” said Public Advocate Letitia James.

Councilman Robert Cornegy said “this couldn’t be any worse.”

“My prayers absolutely go out to the families of the officers,” said Cornegy.

The slain cops are the first two NYPD officers shot and killed in the line of duty since the Dec. 2011 murder of Peter Figoski, 47.

The 22-year veteran, was gunned down after responding to a botched robbery in Cypress Hills. Figoski’s killer, Lamont Pride, now 30, was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison in 2013.

The last time two NYPD cops were shot execution-style was in March 2003.

James Nemorin, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34, were sitting in their car during an undercover gun buy operation on Staten Island when they were shot dead by gangbanger Ronell Wilson, who is on federal death row.

And Saturday’s shooting was eerily similar to the execution-style murder of rookie police officer Edward Byrne.

Byrne, 22, who was shot three times as he sat in his marked patrol car in Queens in 1988. At the time, the officer was guarding the South Jamaica home of a man whose house had been repeatedly firebombed by neighborhood crack dealers.  

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