The mother of a gunman who ambushed and murdered two NYPD officers as they sat in their squad car Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn told authorities that she was scared of her son and he had a troubled childhood, often acting violent.
New York City Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters Sunday afternoon that 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who approached the passenger window of a marked police car at approximately 2:45 p.m. local time and opened fire -- striking Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the head -- had numerous run-ins with law enforcement.
Brinsley has been arrested 15 times in Georgia, and four in Ohio for assorted crimes, Boyce said. In posts on social media, the gunman expressed anger against the United States government at himself, Boyce added.
The silver handgun used in Saturday’s shooting was bought at a pawn shop in Georgia in 1996 and authorities are now working with the ATF to determine how it ended up in Brinsley’s hands.
Investigators are also trying to determine if Brinsley had taken part in any protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, whose names he invoked in his online threat, or simply latched on to the cause for the final act of a violent spree. Police said he had no gang affiliation.
Boyce said Brinsley's mother believed he had undiagnosed mental problems and may have been on medication later in life but detective said they were still trying to determine if he had a mental illness. He attempted to hang himself a year ago, police said.
Prior to arriving in New York on Saturday, Brimsley had shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend at an apartment complex in Owings Mills early in the morning, authorities in Baltimore County, Md. said.
Officials identified the woman Sunday as 29-year-old Shaneka Nicole Thompson. Authorities say Thompson was shot in the abdomen by Brinsley and remains in critical but stable condition.
Brinsley then traveled north on I-95 to New York City on a Bolt bus and arrived in Manhattan, according to Boyce.
Authorities are looking for information as to what Brinsley was up to shortly after noontime and before the shooting, but did say that he spoke to two individuals on the street.
He asked them for their gang affiliation, to follow him on Instagram, and then said “watch what I’m going to do,” Boyce said.
“I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs," Brinsley wrote on his Instagram account Saturday hours before the killings, two city officials with direct knowledge of the case confirmed for The Associated Press. He used the hashtags Shootthepolice RIPErivGardner (sic) RIPMikeBrown. The post also included an image of a silver handgun and the message, "This may be my final post.” The post had more than 200 likes but also had many others admonishing his statements.
Shortly after the shooting, Brinsley fled to a nearby subway station, where he shot himself in the head as a subway train door full of people closed.
Two unnamed Con Edison workers tried to stop Brinsley before he entered the station, but retreated.
When the workers confronted Brinsley on the street, he pointed his gun at him and asked them, “You want some of this?” before they backed off, the New York Post reports.
The two workers alerted police to Brinsley’s location.
“That’s how the cops knew he was in there,” one law enforcement source told the New York Post.
Boyce said Sunday that the police "can't thank those two individuals enough.”
Ramos family on Sunday asked for a “peaceful co-existence” and hopes that the community can move forward from the shooting.
Ramos was married with a 13-year-old son and had another in college, police and a friend told the Associated Press. He had been on the job since 2012 and was a school safety officer. Liu had been on the job for seven years and got married two months ago.
The killings dramatically escalated tensions that have simmered for months over the deaths of young black men.
The siege mentality was evident in several memos circulating among the rank and file at the 35,000-officer New York Police Department, the nation's largest.
A union-generated message warned police officers they should respond to every radio call with two cars — "no matter what the opinion of the patrol supervisor" — and to not make arrests "unless absolutely necessary." The president of the detectives' union told members in a letter to work in threes when out on the street, wear bulletproof vests and keep aware of their surroundings.
"Cowards such as yesterday's killer strike when you are distracted and vulnerable," the letter read.
Another directive warned officer in Newark, New Jersey not to patrol alone and avoid people looking for confrontations with them. A the same time, a memo from an NYPD chief asked officers to avoid fanning rage within the ranks by limiting comments "via all venues, including social media, to expressions of sorrow and condolence. ... Even in our most difficult times, we will remain consummate professionals."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar