Before Shooting Two Officers, Gunman Bragged About His Plans

“This is the worst day of my life”

The man who shot and killed two police officers in New York City on Saturday afternoon, targeting them solely because of the uniforms they wore, boasted to two people about what he was about to do just moments before he opened fire on the officers as they sat in their patrol car.

In a chilling and detailed account of the shooting, the police department’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, said that the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, first walked past the patrol car, crossed the street and then approached the car from behind. He stood outside the passenger side window and fired four shots into the vehicle, killing the officers, Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40.

Mr. Brinsley fled the scene but was followed by two Consolidated Edison workers who the police called heroic. They alerted the police that Mr. Brinsley had headed down onto a Brooklyn subway platform, where he was confronted by police officers and killed himself with a single bullet.

The killing of the two police officers, which Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has called an “assassination,’’ comes at a moment of heightened tension between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Police Department.

In a stunning show of disapproval and disrespect, police officers, led by union officials, turned their backs to him on Saturday night when the mayor went to the hospital to talk about the two officers who were killed.

In an emotional posting on Facebook, the 13-year-old son of Officer Ramos, Jaden, captured the mood of many in the department and around New York.

“This is the worst day of my life,” he wrote. “Today I had to say bye to my father. He was their for me everyday of my life, he was the best father I could ask for. It’s horrible that someone gets shot dead just for being a police officer. Everyone says they hate cops but they are the people that they call for help.”

Mr. Brinsley has not revealed any gang affiliations or links to extremist groups.

Mr. Brinsley had been arrested at least 19 times, Chief Boyce said, most of those occurring in Georgia. Last year, Chief Boyce said, Mr. Brinsley tried to hang himself. As his family had grown increasingly worried about his behavior, Mr. Brinsley seems to have bounced among different residences.

He also posted updates on an Instagram account.

“I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today,” Mr. Brinsley wrote in one, according to the police, where he also referred to the death of Eric Garner, who was killed in a confrontation with the police on Staten Island and Michael Brown, who was killed in a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri. “They Take 1 Of Ours, Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”

President Obama joined the ranks of public officials who expressed outrage and sorrow.

“I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal — prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
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But the tension between City Hall and the Police Department is worse than it has been in years.

The police have been called killers, racists and generally condemned by the protesters.

In recent days, when New York City police officers walked into their headquarters in Lower Manhattan, they were greeted with epithets scrawled in chalk on the sidewalk.

“NYPD KKK,” read one on Sunday. “Avenge our children,” read another.

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