We need to summon up our prayers for the families, friends and colleagues of two as yet unidentified New York City police officers who were murdered execution style in a most cowardly fashion in Brooklyn this afternoon. The details are pretty horrible. Two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner in what investigators believe was a crazed gunmans execution-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
Its an execution, one law enforcement source said of the 3 p.m. shooting of the two officers, whose names were being withheld pending family notification of their deaths.
The tragic heroes were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill when they were shot point-blank in their heads by the lone gunman, who approached them on foot from the sidewalk at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues in Bed-Stuy.
Im Putting Wings on Pigs Today, a person believed to be the gunman wrote on Instagram in a message posted just three hours before the officers were shot through their front passenger window.
Another social media post by the suspected gunman read, They Take 1 Of Ours
Lets Take 2 of Theirs. Nothing is confirmed yet, but the evidence they are releasing in the early hours looks pretty hard to refute. Also, the matching clothing on the suspects body and in the one Instagram photo are pretty convincing.
The alleged killer was already on the run on suspicion of having murdered his girlfriend in Baltimore.
And, of course, the one person who seems to be at the center of all the protests was quick to release a statement.
n a statement, activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said the Garner family was outraged by news of the shootings.
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, the statement said. 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
The Garner family and I have always stressed that we do not believe that all police are bad, in fact we have stressed that most police are not bad.
You know, thats not exactly how I remember it.
There are roughly a thousand things I could write at the moment, but Im pretty sure I would come to regret any of them. Well have more updates later, or possibly just a separate post for you tomorrow. In the meantime, let us pray.
UPDATE: (Jazz) Mayor de Blasio is scheduled to make remarks shortly. This may be a good time to remind him that the NYPD has already stated that if this happened he is not welcome at the funerals.
UPDATE: (Jazz) Police Commissioner William J. Bratton identified the slain officers as Wenjian Liu, a seven-year veteran of the force, and Rafael Ramos, who has been an officer since 2012.
UPDATE: (Jazz) As is so often the case, the readers here at Hot Air had identified the killer at least an hour before the media put it out, but they have now confirmed what you already knew.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, is believed to have shot two cops dead as they sat in a patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant to avenge the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. He is also suspected of shooting his girlfriend in Baltimore on Saturday morning. Law enforcement sources said the NYPD has dispatched investigators to Baltimore to probe Brinsleys past and suspected involvement with the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang.
The cold-blooded cop-hater who gunned down two police officers in Brooklyn on Saturday is suspected of being a member of a notorious prison gang that has declared open season on the NYPD.
Detectives were headed to Baltimore on Saturday night to probe Ismaaiyl Brinsleys ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, sources told the Daily News.
One source said Baltimore police were already investigating Brinsleys connection to the gang, which started in Californias San Quentin Prison in the 1960s by Black Panther member George Jackson.
Heres the killer. (More updates below)
UPDATE: (Jazz) Here is the reception that Mayor de Blasio got from the NYPD when he arrived to give his remarks. They literally turned their backs on him as he walked through the hall.