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Two New York police officers killed in possible Ferguson fallout

Source: Xinhua | December 21, 2014, Sunday | Online Edition

TWO New York police officers were shot dead in their patrol car on Saturday afternoon by a gunman who claimed that he was angered by two recent racially charged causes celebres.

Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were working over time in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn when the shooter came to their car and opened fire at point-blank range, said New York Police Commissioner William Bratton.

The two officers were rushed to Woodhull Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead. Dozens of colleagues joined their families at the hospital in a show of support.

Ramos, father of a 13-year-old boy, was two months away from his 40th birthday. Liu, 32, got married only two months ago.

The two officers were "shot and killed with no warning, no provocation," and they were "quite simply, assassinated," said Bratton.

Citing witness, he said the suspect, identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, approached the police car without saying a word and, taking a shooter's stance on the passenger side, blasted into the front passenger-side window with a silver semi-automatic handgun.

The 28-year-old black man, who had addresses in Georgia and Brooklyn, then fled into the subway and engaged with the police before shooting himself dead, added the commissioner.

Brinsley was a fugitive who had a long record of crimes and had just murdered his girlfriend in Baltimore on Saturday morning, local media reported.

The tragedy came in the wake of nationwide protests triggered by the decision of a grand jury not to indict the policeman who killed an unarmed black young man named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The tension was exacerbated later by the non-indictment decision of a New York grand jury in a similar case, which involved the chokehold death of black vendor Eric Garner.

Prior to the attack, Brinsley claimed on social media that he was enraged by the Brown and Garner cases and intended to kill police officers in revenge.

"I'm Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours......Let's Take 2 Of Theirs #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGardner #RIPMikeBrown," reads a post below a picture of a silver pistol on an Instagram account believed to be Brinsley's, with Garner's name misspelled.

However, Bratton said the linkage between Brinsley and the anti-police protests is still under investigation.

"There has been ... a very strong anti-police, anti-criminal justice system, anti-societal set of initiatives under way and one of the unfortunate aspects sometimes is some people get caught up in these and go in directions they should not," he added.

Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights leader and supporter of the protests against police violence, condemned the incident.

"We have stressed at every rally and march that anyone engaged in any violence is an enemy to the pursuit of justice for Eric Garner and Michael Brown," Sharpton said in a statement.

After meeting the families of the victims, Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, said that "when a police officer is murdered, it tears at the foundation of our society. It is an attack on the very concept of decency."

U.S. President Barack Obama also issued a statement condemning the shooting.

"I unconditionally condemn today's murder of two police officers in New York City. ... Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal," said Obama.

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