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New York Mourns Deaths Of Assassinated Brooklyn Officers

Ashley Yang |
December 21, 2014 | 1:37 p.m. PST

Associate News Editor

 

 

The fatal shooting of New York police officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, in South Brooklyn on Saturday will force New Yorkers to end 2014 in a state of mourning.

The tragedy also represents the arguably biggest challenge to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s one-year administration, which is now tasked with reassuring its citizens while smoothing over a contentious relationship with the New York Police Department. 

Officers Liu and Ramos were shot in their squad car at point blank range by a man now identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who took his own life on a crowded subway platform after being cornered by the NYPD officers pursuing him. Prior to the Brooklyn shooting, Brinsley also shot (but did not kill) a former girlfriend in Maryland. 

Brinsley’s record is laden with arrests and bouts of violence, beginning in Atlanta, Georgia. Court records indicate that he may have been mentally ill.

 

Read more at New York Times

Reach Associate News Editor Ashley Yang here, or follow her on Twitter.



 

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