Two New York City police officers were killed this afternoon in an ambush attack in Brookyln, authorities said.
Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos suffered gunshot wounds to the head as they sat in a patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a news conference tonight. They were there as part of a violence-reduction effort.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, of Georgia, has been identified as the shooter, Bratton said. After firing several rounds through the passenger-side window of the police car, Brinsley fled on foot and into a subway station, where he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, Bratton said.
The officers were unable to draw their guns, and may have never seen the shooter, Bratton said. They were in uniform and in a marked patrol car. The attack included "no warning, no provocation."
"They were quite simply assassinated, targeted for their uniform and the responsibility they embraced: to keep the people of this city safe," Bratton said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called on New Yorkers to pray for the officers' families, whom he met at Woodhull Hospital tonight.
"It's a moment when we must all come together to support these families, to support healing, and to be thankful that there are heroes among us like Officer Ramos and Officer Liu," de Blasio said.
Bratton said that authorities are still investigating motive, but police are looking at "anti-police" postings on the social media site Instagram.
Brinsley apparently drove up from Maryland, where earlier in the day he had shot and gravely injured his ex-girlfriend, authorities said.
The shooting comes at a particularly sensitive time for police departments all around the nation. Just this month, a grand jury in Staten Island declined to indict the officers involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Daniel Pantaleo, one of the officers who was trying to bring Garner into custody for selling loose cigarettes, put his arm around Garner's neck in bringing him to the ground.
Garner's last words have become a rallying cry for protests around the country: "I can't breathe!"
Bratton, the police commissioner, said the NYPD does not know whether Brinsley was connected to the protests. A police investigation will try to answer that question, Bratton said, as part of an effort to make sense of what happened.
The New Jersey Policemen's Benevolent Association said that "hatred" towards police contributed to the deaths of the two NYPD officers.
"The attack on these officers is nothing less then an act of domestic terrorism spurred on by so much recent hatred aimed at officers everywhere," Patrick Colligan, the New Jersey PBA president, said in an emailed statement. "Our society stands safer because of the sacrifices officers make everyday, but the hatred that has grown over the past few weeks in this country has gone unchecked by many elected leaders. We all need to stand up, speak up, and oppose those who attack our law enforcement everywhere."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader who organized the Garner protests, said Saturday night: "An eye for an leaves the whole world blind. We all at (the National Action Network) express our prayers and condolences to the families of the 2 NYC officers."
According to the New York Daily News, Liu was 32 and had married only seven months ago. Ramos, 40, had a 13-year-old son.
Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.