Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suspected killer behind the deaths of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, wanted everyone to see his attack against the police before killing himself on Saturday.
According to the AP, before Brinsley took the lives of the police officers in Brooklyn, he advised people around him to follow his Instagram page. Brinsley’s page was filled with anti-cop sentiments, including his final post that included the phrase, “I’m Putting Pigs In A Blanket.”
Moments before opening fire, Ismaaiyl Brinsley approached people on the street and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them, “Watch what I’m going to do,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
A portrait of the Brooklyn-born gunman emerged as big-city police departments and union leaders around the country warned officers to change up their routines and insist on extra backup a day after Brinsley carried out what he portrayed online as retaliation for the slayings of black men at the hands of white police.
Officials have also questioned the 28-year-old’s mental state before the shooting. Brinsley shot his ex-girlfriend in the abdomen in Baltimore before heading to New York to see his infant son. At 2:47 p.m., Brinsley opened fire on the police officers. His past also unveils dozens of arrests and self-loathing online Facebook posts.
Brinsley, 28, had at least 19 arrests in Georgia and Ohio, spent two years in prison for gun possession and had a troubled childhood so violent that his mother was afraid of him, police said. He ranted online about police and the government and expressed “self-despair and anger at himself and where his life was,” Boyce said.
His mother also admitted her son might have been on medication for a short time. Investigators are looking into the claims to determine if Brinsley had a mental illness.
SOURCE: AP | VIDEO CREDIT: News Inc.
