On a cold December afternoon in 2014, just five days before Christmas, 40-year-old Rafael Ramos, a male New York City Police Department officer, was sitting in his patrol car with his partner, Wenjian Liu. The two officers were stationed in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn as part of an anti-terrorism drill. Without any warning, a man named Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley approached the passenger side of the vehicle and opened fire with a handgun, striking both officers in the head
and upper body. The attack was a sudden and brutal ambush.
The shooter, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had a history of criminal activity and was estranged from his family. Earlier that same day, he had shot and seriously wounded his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore before traveling to New York City. Brinsley had posted on his Instagram account of his intent to kill police officers, framing it as retaliation for the recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. One post read, 'I'm putting Wings on Pigs Today.. . They Take 1 of Ours.. . Lets Take 2 of Theirs.' Just before the shooting, Brinsley reportedly told two men on the street, 'Watch what I am about to do.'
Immediately after assassinating the two officers, Brinsley fled the scene. Construction workers who witnessed the shooting alerted other officers in the area, who then pursued Brinsley into a nearby subway station. As police closed in, Brinsley took his own life with the same handgun he had used to murder the officers. Both Officer Ramos and Officer Liu were rushed to a nearby hospital but were pronounced dead on arrival. The perpetrator, Brinsley, also died at a Brooklyn hospital from his self-inflicted gunshot wound. In the wake of the tragedy, it was revealed that police in Baltimore had received information about Brinsley's threats and had sent a warning to the NYPD, but it arrived almost at the exact time the shooting was taking place.
Rafael Ramos was a dedicated officer who had been with the NYPD for two years, fulfilling a lifelong dream after first serving as a school safety agent. A married father of two sons, he was a deeply religious man and an active member of his church in Glendale, Queens, where he was studying to become a pastor. In recognition of his service and sacrifice, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective First Grade and made an honorary chaplain of his precinct.
