Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, two NYPD officers, were killed over the weekend.
Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were in their marked New York Police Department cruiser on a Brooklyn street when a gunman opened fire on them, then fled to a subway station where he committed suicide. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the partners never had time to pull their weapons and might not have even seen their killer. The men were working out of the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as part of a special detail to help with crime reduction in the area.
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RAFAEL RAMOS
Ramos, who celebrated his 40th birthday this month, joined the NYPD in 2012 after working as a school security officer. He was a lifelong Brooklyn resident, living in the same Cypress Hills section where he had grown up.
He was married with two sons: a 13-year-old and one in college. Rosie Orengo, a friend from church, said he was a leader there and an active participant in the church’s group focusing on married life.
“He was always encouraging us in our marriages,” she said, recalling that the last online post she saw from him was about appreciating and deepening love.
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WENJIAN LIU
The 32-year-old Liu had more job experience and had been a member of the police force for seven years. He moved this year to a home in Brooklyn’s Gravesend section.
Liu had gotten married just two months ago.
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NYPD: Cop ambush killer told passers-by to watch
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department says a gunman who ambushed two officers in their car told two passers-by to “watch what I’m going to do.”
Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce says 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley talked to people on the street just moments before the shooting and told them to follow him on the social media site Instagram.
Boyce said Brinsley had a criminal history with at least 19 arrests and his family told police he tried to hang himself last year.
Brinsley approached a parked squad car from behind on Saturday and opened fire, fatally striking two officers before killing himself. Hours earlier, he had shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend at her home outside Baltimore.
Boyce says Brinsley had ranted online about police and government and expressed despair about his own life.
