New York Police Blame Mayor De Blasio For Execution-Style Killing Of Two Police Officers

A large number of New York City police officers gathered at a hospital in Brooklyn where two of their fellow officers had earlier been declared dead after a lone gunman shot them dead while sitting in their patrol car in an apparent retaliation for the recent police-action killings of Eric Gardner and Michael Brown turned their backs on New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and his entourage as he arrived at the hospital. Mayor De Blasio approached a group of cops at the Brooklyn hospital and attempted to reassure them by offering them , "We're all in this together."  "No, we're not," replied one of the officers. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch was equally as blunt. "There's blood on many hands tonight . . . That blood starts on the steps of City Hall, in the Office of Mayor."

The intense relations between police and the mayor, who is married to a black woman, escalated after he publicly criticized the actions of police later cleared in the death of Garner, who died while police were attempting to take him into a custody for a misdemeanor charge of selling loose cigarettes on the street. A video capturing his arrest showed one officer placing Garner in what appeared to be a choke hold as he repeatedly said, "I can't breathe." A grand jury decision not to charge any of the police officers involved in Garner's death, along with a similar result reached in the police action shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has set off protests nationally, some of which have turned violent.

Yesterday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., a crazed lone gunman approached two New York police officers sitting in their marked cruiser in a Brooklyn neighborhood and opened fired on them, killing both of them. According to the New York Post, Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill when they were shot in the head by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a 28-year old Brooklyn man, who was suspected of shooting an ex-girlfriend at her residence in Baltimore early Saturday morning at 5:45 a.m. An Instagram account supposedly belonging to Brinsley had anti-police postings on it hours before the shooting. "I'm Putting Wings On Pigs Today," said one post. "They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let's Take 2 Of Theirs." The post continued, "This May Be My Final Post."

Baltimore police sent an alert to New York police warning that Brinsley might be headed back to New York, but the warning came just five minutes before the two police officers were shot. Witnesses say Brinsley stood in shock for a few minutes after shooting the two police officer by firing through the passenger-side window. Witnesses saw him run into a subway as the sound of arriving police officers could be heard. Brinsley reportedly turned the gun on himself on a subway platform after being pursued by police, where he died. Brinsley had several past arrests according to the Post in Georgia where he formally lived, as well as a robbery charge in Ohio, which had later been dismissed.

See this amateur video taken above the chaotic scene of yesterday's shooting while emergency workers performed CPR on the two police officers before loading them into ambulances for transport to the hospital.