[ 2014-12-22 ]

Two New York police shot dead in revenge attack
A gunman has shot dead two New York police
officers sitting in their patrol car in a revenge
attack for recent police killings of black
people.

The killings, described as assassinations by the
city’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton,
happened in full daylight.

The gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, of African
American descent, went on to turn his gun on
himself. Earlier he had shot and wounded a former
girlfriend in Baltimore before driving to New York
in search of police to attack.

He approached the two officers as they sat in
their NYPD-marked car in Brooklyn and shot them
both in the head through the window before either
had a chance to respond.

Immediately afterwards he fled to a nearby subway
station and shot himself in the head with a silver
semi-automatic firearm. The gun was recovered from
near his body.

The murdered officers were named as Wenjian Liu, a
police veteran of seven years who was married two
months ago, and Rafael Ramos, who has a
13-year-old son.

Brinsley had left chilling posts on social media
suggesting that he wanted to avenge the killing of
black citizens by police amid growing tensions
over alleged racism and brutality that has sparked
protests across America.

A post on Instagram hours before the attack read:
“I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1
of ours… let’s take 2 of theirs.”

“This may be my final post,” he said alongside
a trail of explosion symbols.

Baltimore police had noticed the online threats
and alerted their New York colleagues - but the
message reached them only as the attack took
place.

Reports in the American media suggested that
Brinsley may have been using the Waze app, which
alerts motorists to police speed traps, to track
down officers to attack.

Barack Obama condemned the attack unconditionally
in a statement, saying it had “no
justification”.

“Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and
words that harm, and turn to words that heal,”
he said.

New York was rocked by the killings. Mr Bratton
said the officers had been assassinated.

“Today, two of New York’s finest were shot and
killed with no warning, no provocation,” he
said.

The motive for the killing was still under
investigation, he added, but did not rule out a
connection to anti-police protests.

“One of the unfortunate aspects at times is some
people get caught up in these and go in directions
they should not,” he said.

Brinsley’s Instagram account, which has been
removed, made a string of references to
high-profile cases of unarmed black men killed by
police.

They included the case of Michael Brown, an
18-year-old in the Ferguson suburb of St Louis,
Missouri, who was shot dead by a police officer in
August, sparking months of protests.

He also referred to Eric Garner, an unarmed father
of six who died in July after police held him in a
chokehold after he was arrested for selling
cigarettes illegally in New York.

Mr Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe”,
have become a totemic slogan for protesters across
the country.

Grand juries decided not to indict either of the
white officers responsible, triggering mass
protests in New York and other US cities.

Criminal records show that Brinsley had a history
of arrests on various charges in Georgia,
including robbery, shoplifting, carrying a
concealed weapon, disorderly conduct and
obstruction of a law enforcement officer.

Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, said that the
city of 8.4 million was in mourning in the wake of
the attack.

“When a police officer is murdered, it tears at
the foundation of our society. It is an attack on
all of us,” he said. “Our entire city was
attacked by this heinous individual.”

The Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist,
said Eric Garner’s family had no connection to
Brinsley and denounced the violence.

“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,” he said.

Source - The Times(UK)

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