The assassination of two police officers who were sitting in their squad car led to dozens of police officers flooding Bedford Stuyvesant yesterday. A witness told the Daily News, "There were like 75 cops here and a bunch ran toward the subway after the guy. There was a huge police presence there. Even undercovers were coming out of nowhere."
Police officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos,40, both from the 84th Precinct but assigned to a Critical Response Vehicle in the 79th Precinct, were outside the Tompkins House at Tompkins and Myrtle Avenues when they were stalked by gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley. Police say that Brinsley, 28, walked up to the front passenger side window, where Liu was sitting (Ramos was in the driver's seat), and shot at them with a silver semi-automatic Taurus firearm.
Witness Courtney Felix described to the Post, "The cops were struggling to get out of the vehicle. They were hanging onto their wounds... One was clutching at his neck and the other was holding onto his collarbone. One cop stumbled out of the driver’s side and he leaned over to fall down. He was trying to catch himself. He was mostly on the floor and he was fading out."
A resident filmed the huge police response, which you can see below. The police officers' vehicle is out of frame:
Another witness told the News, "They basically dragged two cops out their car/ I saw it. One was shot in the face. There was blood coming out of his face."
Lucy Winfree said to the News that the gunshots woke her and she went to the roof to see what was happening, "There was a cop on the ground and everyone was around him. Someone was doing CPR on the cop. They put him on a stretcher and they ran him into an ambulance. They load him in and they hauled a--."
Police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu
Apparently Con Ed workers also witnessed the shooting and saw the fleeing Brinsley: According to the Post, they "followed [Brinsley] in their Con Ed truck as he ambled away from the carnage, still holding his silver Taurus semi-automatic. When they confronted Brinsley on the street, attempting to stop him, Brinsley leveled the gun at the two workers, and asked them, 'You want some of this?' The two backed off, and Brinsley ducked into the nearby G-train station." The Con Ed workers then called the police to say he went into the station.
Brinsley headed to the westbound platform of the Myrtle Avenue G station. A pregnant subway passenger on the platform said, "It looked like two cops came in. There was lots of yelling and they said, ‘Everybody get down.' People were screaming. People were trying to run. I threw myself on the floor. I was afraid for my life and afraid for my baby."
With the cops pursuing him, Brinsley then turned the gun on himself. Responding paramedics performed CPR on him, but he was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital.
