Gunman shots two US policemen

Two New York police officers have been shot
dead by a gunman who then killed himself, officials said.

The officers were killed without warning on
Saturday as they sat in their patrol car in
Brooklyn, Police Commissioner William Bratton
told a news conference, flanked by New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Although we’re still learning the details, it’s
clear that this was an assassination, that these
officers were shot execution style,” said de Blasio.

Bratton named the gunman as Ismaaiyl Brinsley,
28, and said he fled into a nearby metro station
after the shooting and died there from a self-
inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Police said Brinsley had shot and wounded his
girlfriend in Baltimore before driving to Brooklyn.
Bratton added that the gunman had made online
posts that were “very anti-police”.
The shooting comes at a time when police in
New York and nationwide are being heavily
criticised for their tactics following the chokehold
death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who
was stopped by police for selling cigarettes
illegally.
US media reported a possible link between
Brinsley, who was black, and anger over the
death of Garner, based on a social media
posting.

A post on Saturday on the site Instagram that
appeared to be by Brinsley showed a silver pistol
and said, “I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today.

They Take 1 Of Ours … Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”
The post included hashtags for Garner and for
Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who
was killed in August by a white police officer in
Ferguson, Missouri.
Hundreds of people protesting against police
violence filled the Mall of America in Minnesota
on Saturday, chanting “Black lives matter”,
causing part of the mall to shut down.

Demonstrators around the country have staged
protests since a grand jury decided on December
3 not to indict the white officer involved
in Garner’s death, a decision that closely
followed a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to
indict the officer who killed Brown.

Source-punchng