NEW YORK - Two New York City police officers died on Saturday afternoon after being shot "execution-style" while in a parked patrol car in Brooklyn.
In a news conference Saturday evening, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said the two officers were deliberately targeted. He also acknowledged the danger officers face 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 that the attacker approached the officers' vehicle from the passenger side and opened firing, shooting his weapon several times.
The officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael 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, Maryland, residence, Bratton said. Brinsley also posted on the victim's Instagram account, where his comments indicated Brinsley had a "very strong bias against" police, Bratton said. The postings will be investigated as authorities search for a motive.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the shooting was an attack on all New Yorkers
The motives of the shooter were still under investigation, but officials said cops were “targeted for their uniforms.”
The incident occurred as New York officers and police nationwide are being widely criticised for their brutal tactics against suspects, especially African Americans. Over the past weeks tens of thousands of Americans across the country joined in massive marches against the killing of unarmed black men by police.
The protesters spoke out against grand jury decisions not to indict the white officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown, the unarmed teen who was shot by a while police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, the victim of a police chokehold in Stan Island, New York. They staged rallies and ‘die-ins’ under the banners ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Justice for All.’
AFP adds: President Barack Obama "unconditionally" condemned the murders, saying in a statement: "Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal." The two uniformed officers, one a newlywed, were shot in the head through the window of their patrol car in broad daylight in Brooklyn.
Wenjian Liu, a seven-year police veteran who got married two months ago, and Rafael Ramos, who leaves behind a 13-year-old son, were "ambushed and murdered" as they sat in the front seats of a marked NYPD police car, officials said.
Neither officer had a chance to draw his weapon before Brinsley opened fire with several rounds and fled.Attorney General Eric Holder said the attack is a reminder of the dangers US police face regularly. "As a nation we must not forget this as we discuss the events of the recent past," he said in a statement that appeared to refer to the country's ongoing police controversy.
In a cruel twist of fate, Bratton said In October, a man with a hatchet attacked four young New York officers in what police said was an act of terror by a self-radicalised Muslim convert.
"They Take 1 of Ours... Let's Take 2 of Theirs," read a comment seemingly written by Brinsley next to a photo of a silver handgun, referencing the police killings of unarmed blacks. In July, Eric Garner, an unarmed father of six, died after police held him in a chokehold while he was being arrested for selling individual cigarettes illegally in New York.
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old in the Ferguson suburb of St Louis, Missouri, was shot dead by a police officer in August, sparking months of protests.
Grand jury decisions not to indict either white officer responsible triggered mass protests in New York and other US cities.
The Brown family swiftly condemned the latest killings as "senseless."
"We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement. It cannot be tolerated. We must work together to bring peace to our communities," they said in a statement.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who has used the deaths of Garner and Brown to campaign for sweeping police reform, also said he was outraged.
Sharpton said he spoke to the Garner family who also condemned the violence and were "outraged" by the shooting.
But the head of a New York police association blamed city officials for not going far enough to stop those who incited violence during protests against police.
"That blood on their hands starts on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor," Patrolmen's Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch said about Saturday's shootings.
Widespread dissatisfaction in relations between police and blacks have been inflamed not just by the Brown and Garner deaths.
Last month, a rookie police officer fatally shot Akai Gurley, an unarmed 28-year-old black man, in the stairwell of a Brooklyn apartment building.
A 12-year-old black boy holding a toy gun was also shot dead by police officers in a playground in Ohio in November.