
Police Officer Assassinations in New York
A gunman has been charged after terrorizing the New York Police Department twice in 12 hours, firing upon and wounding uniformed officers stationed in the Bronx in separate attacks that officials have condemned as assassination attempts. One officer was shot in the neck and chin Saturday night when the gunman fired several rounds into a marked police van and fled, authorities said. At 7 a.m. Sunday, police said, the same man walked into the Bronx precinct headquarters and opened fire again, striking a lieutenant in the arm and surrendering after his 9mm handgun ran out of bullets. At a news conference Sunday, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the alleged shooter has a “lengthy violent criminal history.” He was paroled in 2017 after serving more than a decade in prison on an attempted murder charge. In a statement, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) promised to hold the shooter accountable to the “fullest extent of the law.” Emphatically placing his support behind the NYPD, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said the shootings were meant to “divide” the city. “This was an attempt to assassinate police officers. We need to use that word because it was a premeditated effort to kill,” de Blasio said. “And not just to kill other human beings, but to kill those who wear a uniform that represents all of us.”