'Watch what I'm going to do,s NYC cop killer told passers-by

December 22, 2014 09:12

The gunman who fatally ambushed two police officers in their squad car had a long criminal record, a hatred for police and the government, and an apparent history of mental instability that included an attempt to hang himself a year ago, authorities has said.

Moments before opening fire, Ismaaiyl Brinsley approached people on the street in Brooklyn and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them, "Watch what I'm going to do," Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said yesterday.

A portrait of the Brooklyn-born gunman emerged as big-city police departments and union leaders around the US warned officers to change 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 officers.

Brinsley was African American; the slain officers were Asian and Hispanic.

The slayings come at a tense time. Police nationwide have been criticised for months for their tactics, following Eric Garner's death in a New York officer's chokehold and Michael Brown's fatal shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests erupted in recent weeks after grand juries declined to charge the white officers involved.

Investigators were trying to determine if Brinsley had taken part in any protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner, whose names he invoked in his online threat, or simply latched on to the cause for the final act in a violent rampage.

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