A Queens man was arrested after he made threats about killing white NYPD officers in the wake of last weekend’s slaying of two officers.
The man, identified as 38-year-old Elvin Payamps, said that the two assassinated NYPD cops should have been white, and he claimed he had the weapons to do it, according to NYPDNews.com.
A witness said that the suspect was overheard making threatening comments about killing police officers inside a TD Bank.
“The suspect left the location prior to the arrival of the police which prompted the officers to transmit a description of the individual over the department radio. Other responding officers began to canvass for the unidentified male suspect. During the canvass, a male fitting the description was observed entering a vehicle” nearby, a statement reads.
After Payamps was taken into custody, police then got verbal and written consent from his spouse to search their residence. Investigators then found a small cache of weapons, including two firearms, two bulletproof vests, a holster, and brass knuckles.
“I’m going to kill another cop. We should do it before Christmas. The cop should have been white that was killed. I always have a gun on me,” Payamps allegedly said on his cell phone, according to the New York Post.
Payamps is said to have confessed to making the threat, saying it was in response to the killings of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn last weekend.
“They should have killed two white cops instead of the Hispanic and Asian if the guy really wanted to send a message,” Payamps is reported to have said.
He was held with a $500,000 bail on Thursday night for felony weapons charges along with felony aggravated harassment charges.
“The case is serious,” Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephanie Zaro told the Post. “But the law does not allow me to remand on a C violent felony,” she said, in reference to the weapons charge.
