The man who ambushed and killed two NYPD cops in Brooklyn yesterday began his day by shooting his ex-partner and making online posts that were “very anti-police,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
Baltimore County Police learned that Brinsley had a connection to Brooklyn and had faxed a warning flier to the NYPD, but it was not received until around the same time as the 2:47 p.m. shooting, Bratton said.
“At approximately 2:45 this afternoon, Baltimore authorities sent a fax,” Bratton said. “Unfortunately, it was essentially at the same time our officers were being ambushed and murdered by Brinsley.”
The NYPD will be working with Baltimore police to determine a motive and what brought Brinsley to New York City, Bratton said.
The suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, wrote on an Instagram account: “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let’s take 2 of theirs.”
Around 2:47 p.m., police said Brinsley approached the passenger window of a marked police car and opened fire, striking Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the head. The officers were on special patrol doing crime reduction work in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
The officers were at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“They were, quite simply, assassinated — targeted for their uniform,” Bratton said.
Brinsley took off running after the shooting. Officers chased him down to a nearby subway station, where he shot himself in the head as a subway train door full of people closed.
“This may be my final post,” Brinsley wrote in the Instagram post that included an image of a silver handgun. A silver handgun was recovered at the scene of the shooting, police said.
Another picture showed what appeared to be blood on a pair of jeans and references to Brooklyn, CBS New York reports.
Read more at CBS NEWS.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
