The man whom police say murdered two NYPD officers as they ate lunch in their patrol car Saturday had a long criminal history. Court documents show that Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, had been arrested in Ohio for theft and robbery, and in Georgia for robbery, shoplifting, carrying a concealed weapon, disorderly conduct and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to WABC. The New York Times reports that Brinsley was convicted on weapons charges in Georgia in 2011 and served two years in prison there. He also had prior arrests in Brooklyn, where his family still lives. “The family is grieving and they’re still trying to cope with what’s happening. It was an estranged relationship,” Tony…
The man whom police say murdered two NYPD officers as they ate lunch in their patrol car Saturday had a long criminal history.
Court documents show that Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, had been arrested in Ohio for theft and robbery, and in Georgia for robbery, shoplifting, carrying a concealed weapon, disorderly conduct and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to WABC.
The New York Times reports that Brinsley was convicted on weapons charges in Georgia in 2011 and served two years in prison there. He also had prior arrests in Brooklyn, where his family still lives.
“The family is grieving and they’re still trying to cope with what’s happening. It was an estranged relationship,” Tony Lindsey, a friend of Brinsley’s mother, told WABC. The suspect’s sister, who lives in Georgia, told The New York Times that she had not seen her brother in two years.
Brinsley allegedly shot his girlfriend in Baltimore early Saturday morning, then traveled to New York with the intention of killing police officers, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said in a press conference Saturday night.
A user believed to be Brinsley posted threats against cops on social media prior to the shooting. Those threats were relayed to the NYPD by Baltimore-area police shortly before the shooting, which Bratton and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio both described as an assassination.
Brinsley allegedly walked up behind a squad car in Brooklyn on Saturday and fired shots inside, striking Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. He then ran to a nearby subway station and took his own life. The officers were pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital.
NYPD detectives traveled to Baltimore Saturday night to look into Brinsley’s past and investigate his alleged ties to a prison gang that has advocated violence against cops.
Groups critical of heavy-handed policing were swift to condemn the attack. Black Lives Matter, an organization that has staged protests in response to recent grand jury decisions not to indict officers in the deaths of black men, released a statement Saturday calling the shooting a murder.
“An eye for an eye is not our vision of justice,” the statement said. “We know all too well the pain and the trauma that follows the senseless loss of our family members and loved ones.”
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Ismaaiyl Brinsley, Alleged Cop Killer, Had Criminal History, ‘Estranged Relationship’ With Family
