Ismaaiyl Brinsley Kills Two NYPD Officers And Brags About It On Instagram
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the shooter responsible for killing Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, allegedly told bystanders to follow him on Instagram and said “Watch what I’m going to do,” moments before committing the heinous crime. The revelation came after police officers constructed a timeline of Brinsley’s activities leading up to the shooting on Saturday, December 20.
According to investigators, Brinsley took a bus to New York after killing his ex-girlfriend in her Baltimore apartment following an altercation. He called the victim’s mother while he was on his way to New York to apologize for what he had done. She then alerted the Baltimore Police Department of the crime. The investigation by the Baltimore County police revealed that Brinsley was using his ex-girlfriend’s cellphone to post messages on Instagram threatening the NYPD. One of the posts read, “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours … let’s take 2 of theirs.”
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that Baltimore authorities sent a wanted flier to the NYPD and other agencies between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. following the shooting in Baltimore. However, the warning proved to be unsuccessful as it was around this time that Brinsley shot and killed Officers Liu and Ramos. After the shooting, Brinsley fled to a nearby subway station. Two Con Ed workers chased Brinsley and flagged down police officers in the 75th precinct. The chase ended when Brinsely shot himself inside the subway station.
Police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting, but it was revealed that they have managed to learn about the suspect’s mental state through his Facebook and Instagram, as well as the phones that were recovered. According to their investigation, Brinsley expressed anger at the government and the police following the Eric Garner and Michael Brown incidents.
Brinsely didn’t have gang affiliations, but his mother claims that he had a violent childhood. He is also suicidal and had tried to hang himself just a year ago. Despite these findings, he was never diagnosed with a mental illness.
Eric Garner‘s mother, Gwen Carr, released a statement following the shooting.
“I’m standing here in sorrow about losing those 2 police officers. That was definitely not our agenda. We are going in peace, and anyone who’s standing with us, we want you to not use Eric Garner’s name for violence, because we are not about that. These 2 police officers lost their lives senselessly.”
Garner’s widow, Esaw, also urged protesters to be peaceful saying, “My husband was not a violent man, so we don’t want any violence connected to his name.”
[Image via YouTube]
