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Demetrius
Blackwell, 35, was arrested hours after he allegedly shot New
York Police Department officer Brian Moore, 25, in the head
after Moore attempted to question him in a middle-class section
of the borough of Queens on May 2.
Blackwell was initially charged with first-degree attempted
murder, aggravated assault on a police officer, first-degree
assault and weapons possession. After Moore died of his wounds
on May 4, Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown sought
to charge Blackwell with first-degree murder, which carries a
maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
Moore's death came at a time of fraught relations between police
and minority communities across the United States.
Police killings of unarmed black men in New York, Missouri,
South Carolina and elsewhere have provoked months of largely
peaceful protests punctuated with bouts of arson and looting. A
gunman who in December shot and killed two uniformed New York
police officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn left
postings on social media suggesting his attack was an act of
revenge for police killings of black men.
Blackwell is black, and Moore was white.
Moore's shooting did not appear to be politically motivated and
his funeral last month featured none of the ire seen at
ceremonies for the officers killed in Brooklyn, where thousands
of New York Police Department officers in uniform turned their
backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom police union officials had
accused of not adequately supporting officers.
(Editing by Scott Malone and Mohammad Zargham)
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