Two NYPD cops were executed Saturday after a career criminal drove from Baltimore to Brooklyn to kill police officers in a twisted bid to avenge the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
“They were, quite simply, assassinated,” a shaken NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Saturday night.
The shooter — identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley — boasted about wanting to murder cops in the hours before he ambushed the officers outside the Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant about 2:45 p.m.
“I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours … let’s take 2 of theirs,” Brinsley, 28, wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of a silver handgun.
He also included three hashtags: ShootThePolice, RIPErivGarner (sic) and RIPMikeBrown.
“This may be my final post … I’m putting pigs in a blanket.”
A second slay attempt on NYPD officers was narrowly avoided early Sunday when a gunman’s weapon jammed as he took aim at two cops outside a Bronx housing project, sources said.
Investigators grabbed the wannabe cop killer after he dropped his gun and ran into the Millbrook Houses on Saint Anns Ave. in Port Morris, sources said.
Earlier, Brinsley made good on his sinister promise, firing several rounds into the marked patrol car parked on Tompkins Ave. near Myrtle Ave., cops and witnesses said.
The officers — Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32 — were in the area as part of a push to beef up cops’ presence near violence-plagued housing projects.
“The perp came out of the houses, walked up behind the car and lit them up,” a high-ranking police official told the Daily News.
His face tense and voice shaky, Bratton said the two cops “were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation.”
Mayor de Blasio, who has taken heat for showing solidarity with anti-cop protesters, spoke movingly about the officers and the role they play in keeping New York City safe.
“Our hearts are heavy. We lost two good men who devoted their lives to protecting all of us,” the somber mayor said at Woodhull Hospital, flanked by Bratton, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and other city leaders.
De Blasio described the double murder as “an assassination” and a “despicable act.”
It “goes at the very heart of our society and our democracy,” he added. “When a police officer is murdered, it tears at the fabric of our society.”
Right after Brinsley fired the fatal shots, he sprinted around the corner to the G line subway station at Myrtle-Willoughby Aves., with cops in close pursuit.
Brinsley disappeared inside the station, then shot himself in the head on a platform, police said.
Paramedics carried Brinsley out on a stretcher and were performing CPR. But the killer, described as a drifter who hails from Georgia and has a recent address on Eastern Parkway, was later pronounced dead.
The same gun Brinsley showed off on his Instagram page, a silver semiautomatic Taurus, was found under his body, sources said. His car, with Maryland plates, was later discovered on Myrtle Ave. at Nostrand Ave.
The mortally wounded officers were rushed to Woodhull.
“Worst nightmare in the NYPD,” tweeted NYPD Captains Endowment Association President Roy Richter. “Incredible sadness as we mourn for our brothers and their families.”
The slayings capped a bloody daylong crime spree for Brinsley.
Hours before he showed up in Brooklyn, Brinsley shot his ex-girlfriend at about 5:45 a.m. in Owings Mills, Md., about 15 miles from Baltimore.
The 29-year-old woman, who was hit in the stomach, underwent surgery and was expected to survive, a family member told The News.
Brinsley stole the woman’s phone after the shooting — and headed for New York. At some point along the way, he posted a menacing update on Facebook.
“I always wanted to be known for doing something right … but my past is stalking me and my present is haunting me,” it read.
“Why live if you don’t love to live,” he added in a second post, his last.
Brinsley also apparently bragged about shooting his ex-gal pal. On his Instagram account, he posted a photo of army fatigues with apparent blood stains. “Never had a hot gun on your waist and blood on your shoe … N—a you ain’t been through what I been through you not like me and im not like you.”
Brinsley was known as a lifelong criminal with ties to Brooklyn. Baltimore County authorities, after learning he was on the run and had posted social media messages about killing cops, sent a wanted flyer to the NYPD, Bratton said.
But the warning didn’t arrive until 2:45 p.m.
“Tragically this was essentially at the same time as our officers were being murdered and ambushed by Brinsley,” Bratton said.
Later Saturday, Baltimore County cops offered a timeline that conflicted with Bratton’s account. Baltimore County cops say they made a phone call to the 70th precinct about 2:10 p.m. after learning that Brinsley’s phone was pinging at a nearby location.
The officers discussed the “threatening Instagram posts” — and around the same time Baltimore County cops faxed a wanted poster to the NYPD with information about the suspect. About 2:50 p.m., Baltimore authorities sent a teletype with the same information as the flyer to the NYPD’s real-time crime center. The NYPD could not immediately confirm the Baltimore County account.
Days before Saturday’s slayings, Brinsley exhorted his Instagram followers to “burn the flag” in protest of the recent police killings of black men. “Marching up and down the streets does little to nothing to bring awareness to serious matters,” he wrote. “So let’s ruffle some feathers and take it into our own hands and make them watch in horror as we burn what they represent.”
Ramos and Liu never had a chance, cops and witnesses said.
Like a trained assassin, Brinsley snuck up to their patrol car and started firing into the passenger window — striking both officers in the head. “Officer Liu and Officer Ramos never had the opportunity to draw their weapons,” Bratton said. “They may not have ever actually seen their assailant.”
Witness Courtney Felix, 23, said he heard a volley of shots, then saw the two officers stumble out of the patrol car and crumple to the ground. “They looked like they were really hurt,” said Felix who was at a friend’s apartment overlooking the scene. “They were struggling to get out of the car.”
Felix said the cop on the drivers’ side “was clutching his neck, catching himself and fading out” as he fell to the ground. The other cop was clutching his collarbone as he stumbled, Felix added.
Rescuers rushed to the aid of the mortally wounded officers. “They basically dragged two cops out their car,” said a witness who asked to remain anonymous. “I saw it. One was shot in the face. There was blood coming out of his face.”
Uriel Winfree, 30, said she was awakened by the sound of gunshots. Wondering what was going on, she went up to the roof to get a better vantage on the street. “There was a cop on the ground and everyone was around him,” Winfree said. “Someone was doing CPR on the cop. They put him on a stretcher and they ran him into an ambulance. They load him in and they hauled a–.
“There were like 75 cops here and a bunch ran toward the subway after the guy. There was a huge police presence there. Even undercovers were coming out of nowhere.”
Brinsley’s criminal record stretched back to at least 2004 and included a string of arrests in Georgia and Ohio. In Georgia’s Fulton County alone, Brinsley was arrested nine times over the past decade on charges including simple battery, criminal trespassing, carrying a concealed weapon, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and shoplifting, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, in a statement, said Garner’s family was incensed the killer invoked his name on social media. “I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today,” Sharpton said. “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.”
Garner died after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold on Staten Island on July 17. Brown, who was unarmed, was shot dead in Ferguson, Mo. by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. In both cases, the victims were black and the cops were white. Grand juries did not indict either officer, sparking national protests and outrage over police treatment of minorities.
The Brown family released a statement condemning the “senseless killing of two NYPD officers.”
“We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement,” it said. “It cannot be tolerated.”
Following Saturday’s bloodshed, President Obama joined city and state pols in denouncing the double assassination. “I unconditionally condemn today’s murder of two police officers in New York City,” Obama said. “Two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight, and for that, there is no justification.”
“This deplorable act of violence is the opposite of what New York is and what New Yorkers believe in,” Gov. Cuomo said. “Tonight, we all come together to mourn the loss of these brave souls.”
Councilman Robert Cornegy said “this couldn’t be any worse. … My prayers absolutely go out to the families of the officers.”
In a tweet, Mark-Viverito said she was “truly horrified” by the crime.
Early Sunday, the NYPD sent out a safety directive to all commands, making it mandatory for officers to operate in pairs and urging officers on patrol to “maintain a heightened level of awareness.”
The slain cops are the first two NYPD officers shot and killed in the line of duty since the Dec. 2011 murder of Peter Figoski, 47. The 22-year veteran, was gunned down after responding to a botched robbery in Cypress Hills. Figoski’s killer, Lamont Pride, now 30, was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison in 2013.
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With Mike Oates, Ben Kochman, Caitlin Nolan, Jennifer Fermino, Barry Paddock, Jan Ransom
