On December
20, 2014, Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, 28, killed two on-duty New York City Police Department
(NYPD) officers in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the
New
York City borough of Brooklyn,
ostensibly as revenge
for the death of Eric Garner and the shooting of Michael Brown. Brinsley then
fled into the New York City Subway, where he committed suicide.
Let us not
forget the two fallen policemen:
 |
|
Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu 1a
Officers Rafael Ramos,
40, left, and Wenjian Liu, 32, were killed on Saturday. Credit New York Police
Department
|
2014
killings of NYPD officers
|
|
Location
|
Bedford–Stuyvesant,
Brooklyn, New York City, New York,
U.S.
|
Date
|
December 20, 2014
2:47 p.m. (EST) |
Attack type
|
|
Weapons
|
|
Deaths
|
3
(including the perpetrator)
|
Victims
|
2 (NYPD
officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu)
|
Perpetrator
|
Ismaaiyl
Abdullah Brinsley
|
Motive
|
Revenge
for Eric Garner's
and Michael
Brown's deaths
|
On December 20, 2014, Ismaaiyl Abdullah
Brinsley, 28, killed two on-duty New York City Police Department
(NYPD) officers in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the
New
York City borough of Brooklyn,
ostensibly as revenge
for the death of Eric Garner and the shooting of Michael Brown. Brinsley then
fled into the New York City Subway, where he committed suicide.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_killings_of_NYPD_officers
Background
and events
The shooting
occurred just weeks after a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD officer Daniel
Pantaleo, who was involved in the death of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014. The
grand jury's decision resulted in widespread protests in New York City and
across the nation against police
brutality and the lack of accountability for it. The protests also
coincided with widespread protests in response to a grand jury's
decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer
who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9. Brinsley's
motive to kill the NYPD officers was motivated by outrage over the two deaths.
Before
Brinsley arrived in Brooklyn by bus, he shot and seriously wounded his
29-year-old ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Nicole Thompson, in the Baltimore
suburb of Owings Mills, Maryland, on
Saturday morning. The second shooting occurred at Myrtle
Avenue and Tompkins Avenue, a busy intersection in Brooklyn near the
Tompkins Houses. Brinsley approached the passenger window of an NYPD patrol car
occupied by Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, of Brooklyn's 84th Precinct.
He then fired a semiautomatic handgun four times through the open window,
striking Ramos and Liu in the head and upper body, killing both officers
instantly. Two Con Ed workers who witnessed the shooting
notified police. After NYPD officers responding to the scene chased him onto
the subway, he committed suicide with the handgun in the Myrtle–Willoughby
Avenues (G train) subway station,
according to police. Brinsley and the two police officers were taken to Woodhull
Hospital, and all were pronounced dead on arrival.
Victims
Rafael Ramos
Rafael Ramos
(December 9, 1974 – December 20, 2014), married with two sons and a longtime
resident of Glendale, Queens, had joined the NYPD as a school safety
agent, before being promoted to officer in January 2012. He was active in
his church, Christ Tabernacle in Glendale, and had once studied at a seminary. He
had just completed a training course to become a volunteer chaplain. He
planned to eventually join the ministry when he retired from the police force.
The Silver
Shield Foundation, founded by the late New
York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, announced it would pay for
the education of Ramos' 13-year-old son. Bowdoin
College said it would provide full financial aid to Ramos' elder son, who
is a sophomore at the school, so he could complete his education.
A funeral
service for Ramos, the largest police funeral in the city’s history, was held
on December 27 in Glendale with over 100,000 people present, including many
politicians such as Vice President Joe Biden;
the service itself from start to finish was almost five hours long and was
broadcast around the world, with many people coming from across the country to
pay their respects to the slain officer. Afterward, Ramos' body was transported
to St. John Cemetery in nearby Middle Village, where he was laid to rest.
Hundreds of officers turned their backs to Mayor Bill
de Blasio as he delivered his eulogy.
Wenjian Liu
Wenjian Liu (simplified Chinese: 刘文健; traditional Chinese: 劉文健; pinyin: Liú Wénjiàn), (April 8, 1982 – December 20, 2014), was the
only son of Chinese immigrants Wei Tang Liu and Xiu Yan Li. He
and his family came to the United States from Taishan, Guangdong in China, when he was 12 years old. He
was a seven-year veteran officer of the NYPD who had married Pei Xia Chen in
October 2014. He had no children.
Following a
wake on January 3 containing elements of Chinese and Buddhist funerals, a
funeral service for Liu took place on January 4 at the Ralph Aievoli & Son
Funeral Home in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. In protest of de
Blasio's perceived lack of support for them, some attending police officers
turned their backs on the video screen showing de Blasio's eulogy speech;
however, de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill
Bratton were also saluted at the ceremony. Afterward, Liu's body was
transported to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, and was laid to
rest. After his burial, a post burial dinner, a Chinese
tradition for honoring the deceased, and giving his spirit a good send-off to
heaven, was held in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Perpetrator
Ismaaiyl
Abdullah Brinsley (October 31, 1986 – December 20, 2014) had a long
criminal record and was estranged from his family prior to the shooting. He was
born in Brooklyn to a Muslim African-American family. He had an arrest record for
weapons possession and robbery, which amounted to a total of 19 arrests in Georgia and Ohio. He was convicted
of felony gun possession in Georgia, where he was living at the time of the
shooting. Brinsley allegedly had ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, a prison gang that
was reportedly planning revenge attacks on police officers according to police
informants, and the Nuwaubian Nation, a black-supremacist cult
originating in Georgia. An unnamed federal law enforcement source has been
quoted as saying there were no apparent ties. Daniel McCall, who was appointed
to represent Brinsley in Georgia, said Brinsley was not difficult to represent
and that no psychiatric problems were noticed at that time.
On the day of
the attack, Brinsley had tried to commit suicide with his gun before killing
the police officers, but he was talked out of it by his girlfriend, whom he
then shot. Brinsley also attempted suicide a year previously. After the
shooting, Brinsley reportedly called Thompson's mother and other family members
and claimed the shooting was an accident. Brinsley wrote on his Instagram
account of his intentions to kill police as retribution for the recent deaths
of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. In the post, which he made later that day
while on a bus to New York City, he wrote, "I'm putting Wings on Pigs
Today ... They Take 1 of Ours ... Lets Take 2 of Theirs. [sic]" By then,
the Baltimore County Police Department
had been tracking Brinsley's movements from Baltimore to New York City, and
sent a fax to the NYPD about his intentions just a minute before the killings
occurred.
Reactions
Government
officials, current and former
NYPD officers
and police union
Civil rights
groups
The public
Entertainment
Media
Families
Aftermath
On December 22, de Blasio asked that anti-police
protestors "suspend demonstrations." Earlier in the day, NYPD
Commissioner William
Bratton said the killings were a "direct spinoff of this issue
[of the protests]". Some protesters issued blanket condemnations of the
police as "racists and worse" according to The New York Times.
While the investigations into Brinsley's motivation continues, Bratton has
concluded that "the protests served as an inspiration for the disturbed
man."
Six people were arrested for making terroristic
threats against NYPD officers in the week following the shooting. After a
police union directive in December 2014, the police have been dispatching two
cars in response to every call, contributing to a lack of manpower, and as a
result, a 94% drop in summonses for minor offenses and a 66% reduction in
arrests.
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