|
 New York police officers turned their backs on de Blasio in
protest during a news conference and their union said the mayor had
blood on his hands after Saturday's shooting. Police investigators
have said the killings were the work of a 28-year-old black man with
a long arrest record who may have had past mental troubles and who
warned of his intentions on social media.
The gunman's posts on Instagram indicated he had been motivated by
the deaths of 18-year-old Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands
of police officers.
De Blasio was elected last year on a promise to advance civil rights
after two decades of tough policing helped New York shed its
reputation for violent crime. He has been sympathetic to the
protesters who poured into New York's streets after a grand jury
declined earlier this month to indict the officer who killed Garner
in a chokehold in July as he resisted arrest.
The mayor's stance has led to sometimes tense relations with the
city's largest police union. Critics within the force view the mayor
as not supportive enough at a time of public anger.
"Mayors tend not to do well when the police department and its
officers are not happy," said New York political strategist Hank
Sheinkopf, whose clients have included de Blasio's predecessor,
Michael Bloomberg.
The deaths of Garner in New York and Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,
led to sometimes violent protests across the United States. A grand
jury also declined to charge the officer involved in Brown's death.
The cases provoked a bitter public debate about race and law
enforcement that has drawn in President Barack Obama and his black
attorney general, Eric Holder.
Leaders of recent anti-police protests, including longtime New York
civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton, have condemned the
officers' murder.
About 100 protesters, part of a group who recently met with de
Blasio to call for police reforms, held a demonstration on Sunday
night in Harlem. In contrast to usually boisterous protests critical
of police, participants marched in silence bearing candles.
A candlelight vigil for the slain officers was also held in Brooklyn
near the scene of the shooting.
Obama, briefed on Saturday about the police deaths while on vacation
in Hawaii, called New York Police Commissioner William Bratton on
Sunday to express condolences for the killing. Bratton heads the
largest police department in the country.
'TENSION AND DIVISION'
New York's Roman Catholic cardinal, Timothy Dolan, warned of rising
tensions during a Sunday service attended by de Blasio and Bratton.
"We worry about a city tempted to tension and division," Dolan said
at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Flags across the state flew at half staff and the 13-year-old son of
one of the deceased officers bid his father good-bye in a Facebook
post.
"It's horrible that someone gets shot dead just for being a police
officer," wrote the son of Rafael Ramos, 40, who was killed
alongside his police partner, 32-year-old Wenjian Liu.
Funeral plans had not yet been announced for Ramos and Liu, who were
the first on-duty police officers to die in gunfire in the city
since 2001. But the ceremonies could end up underscoring the
divisions between the police and the mayor.
The police union had previously started a campaign in which officers
could fill out a form asking de Blasio and other city officials not
to attend their funerals if they were to die in the line of duty. It
was not clear on Sunday how many officers had filled out the forms.
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POLICE ON EDGE
Across the country, police departments were on edge on Sunday
following the attack in New York and another in Florida. A police
officer on duty outside Tampa was shot to death early Sunday and a
suspect has been arrested, local authorities reported. There was no
indication yet of a motive.
The St. Louis Police Officers Association on Sunday asked the
department to step up security, while Baltimore's police union said
the current political environment was the most dangerous for
officers since the 1960s.
Police said the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, shot and wounded his
former girlfriend in a Baltimore suburb before traveling to New York
City and attacking the officers while they were sitting in their
patrol car.
Just before the shooting, Brinsley said to two bystanders, "Watch
what I'm going to do," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told a
news conference.
Brinsley killed himself soon after the shooting.
Georgia court documents portray Brinsley as having had numerous
run-ins with the law and possible mental trouble.
He was booked into jail in Fulton County, Georgia, nine times
between 2004 and 2010 on charges including simple battery,
obstructing a law enforcement officer and terroristic threats.
A sentencing document in Cobb County, Georgia, where he pleaded
guilty to weapons charges in 2011 showed that when asked if he had
ever been a patient in a mental hospital or been under the care of a
psychologist or psychiatrist, Brinsley said, "Yes," but there were
no details of his mental problems. He said he had gone as far as
10th grade in school.
He was arrested a total of 19 times, Boyce said. Members of
Brinsley's family told NYPD investigators that he had attempted
suicide in the past and that his mother believed he had undiagnosed
mental health issues, Boyce said.
"His mother expressed fear of him and hadn't seen him in a month,"
Boyce told reporters.
Police identified Brinsley's former girlfriend as Shaneka Nicole
Thompson, 29. She was in critical but stable condition at an area
hospital, police said.
(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington, Anna Yukhananov
in Baltimore, Jason McLure in St. Louis, Colleen Jenkins in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Sebastien Melo in New York and P.J.
Huffstutter in Chicago; Writing by Scott Malone and Eric Beech,
editing by David Evans, Diane Craft and Christian Plumb)
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