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2 NYC
officers
dead in
ambush
shooting
in
cruiser
By
COLLEEN
LONG and
JENNIFER
PELTZ
Associated
Press
NEW YORK
- An
armed
man
walked
up to
two New
York
Police
Department
officers
sitting
inside a
patrol
car and
opened
fire
Saturday
afternoon,
shooting
both of
them
fatally
before
running
into a
nearby
subway
station
and
committing
suicide,
police
said.
The
shooting
took
place in
Brooklyn's
Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighborhood.
Both
officers
were
rushed
to
Woodhull
hospital,
where
one was
pronounced
dead,
police
said.
The
second
officer
was
later
pronounced
dead at
the
hospital,
according
to a
senior
city
official
and a
law
enforcement
official
with
direct
knowledge
of the
shooting.
They
were not
authorized
to speak
publicly
and
spoke to
The
Associated
Press on
condition
of
anonymity.
Authorities
say the
suspect
fatally
shot
himself
inside
the
station.
His
motive
wasn't
immediately
clear.
A news
conference
with
police
officials
and
Mayor
Bill de
Blasio
is
scheduled
for 7
p.m.
A block
from the
shooting
site, a
line of
about
eight
police
officers
stood
with a
German
shepherd
blocking
the
taped-off
street.
Streets
were
blocked
even to
pedestrians
for
blocks
around.
Derrick
Thompson,
who
lives
nearby,
said the
shooting
happened
across
from the
Tompkins
Houses
public
housing
development.
"I was
watching
TV, and
then I
heard
the
helicopters,"
Thompson
said. "I
walked
out, and
all of a
sudden -
this."
The
shooting
comes at
a tense
time.
Police
in New
York are
being
criticized
for
their
tactics
following
the
chokehold
death of
Eric
Garner,
who was
stopped
by
police
on
suspicion
of
selling
loose,
untaxed
cigarettes.
Amateur
video
captured
an
officer
wrapping
his arm
around
Garner's
neck and
wrestling
him to
the
ground.
Garner
was
heard
gasping,
"I can't
breathe"
before
he loses
consciousness
and
later
dies.
The
president
of the
police
officers
union,
Patrick
Lynch,
and de
Blasio
have
been
locked
in a
public
battle
over
treatment
of
officers
following
the
grand
jury's
decision.
Just
days
ago,
Lynch
suggested
police
officers
sign a
petition
that
demanded
the
mayor
not
attend
their
funerals
should
they die
on the
job.
The last
shooting
death of
an NYPD
officer
came in
December
2011,
when
22-year
veteran
Peter
Figoski
responded
to a
report
of a
break-in
at a
Brooklyn
apartment.
He was
shot in
the face
and
killed
by one
of the
suspects
hiding
in a
side
room
when
officers
arrived.
The
triggerman,
Lamont
Pride,
was
convicted
of
murder
and
sentenced
in 2013
to 45
years to
life in
prison.
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