A deranged Baltimore gang member shot his girlfriend before driving to Brooklyn where he executed 2 NYPD police officers as they sat in their patrol unit on Saturday.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, reportedly shot officers Rafael Ramos, left, and Wenjian Liu point blank in the head as they ate lunch in their patrol car at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Witnesses say Brinsley approached on the passenger side of the patrol unit and fired into the car just before 3 p.m.
He then fled to a nearby subway where he turned the gun on himself. Brinsley (pictured above on a stretcher) was pronounced dead at Brooklyn hospital. The 2 officers were later pronounced dead at Woodhull hospital.
“He just walked up and shot that cop in the head,” a witness told the NY Daily News.
“The perp came out of the houses, walked up behind the car and lit them up,” a high-ranking police official told the NY Daily News.
Prior to leaving Baltimore, Brinsley shot his former girlfriend in the abdomen. She is expected to survive her gunshot wound.
Brinsley forewarned of his deadly intentions on his now-shuttered Instagram account.
“I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s Take 2 of Theirs… This May Be My Final Post,” Brinsley wrote under a photo of a silver handgun. Brinsley said he was avenging the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — 2 unarmed black men killed by police in NY and Ferguson, Mo.
NYPD officers, past and present, are criticizing NY Mayor Bill de Blasio for “throwing the police under the bus.”
Petitions are being circulated discouraging de Blasio from attending the funerals of any fallen officers.
From the NY Daily News:
Brinsley is believed to be a member of a Baltimore gang, Black Guerilla Family, sources said. The gang has vowed retribution for the deaths of Garner and Brown. Garner died after being put in a chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17 on Staten Island. Brown, who was unnarmed, was shot dead by Ferguson, Mo. cop Darren Wilson on Aug. 9th. Neither cop was indicted by grand juries, sparking national protests.
“I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton in a statement Saturday evening. “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.
