Families decry use of Brown, Garner names in NYPD killings

The families of Eric Garner and Michel Brown have condemned the citing of the dead men’s names by a gunman who killed two NYPD officers in an attack purportedly motivated by anti-police feeling.

Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, murdered Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu as the officers sat in a patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday. Before the attack, Brinsley left a series of virulent posts on social media, bragging of his intention to kill.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours ... let's take 2 of theirs," he purportedly wrote on Instagram, accompanied by a picture a handgun. In the post, he also referred to Eric Garner and Michael Brown, black men killed by police officers in separate incidents. The decisions by grand juries in New York and Missouri not to indict members of the police over the incidents have led to widespread protests.

But on Sunday, the families of both men decried the linking of Saturday’s execution-style murders to their desire for justice.

“I’m standing here in sorrow about losing these two police officers. That was definitely not our agenda. We are going in peace, and anyone who is standing with us, we want you to not use Eric Garner’s name for violence, because we are not about that,” said Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother.

Extending her condolences to Liu’s and Ramos’ loved ones, she added, “We stand with their families.”

Brown’s family likewise released a statement condemning the shooting, saying, “We reject any kind of violence directed towards members of law enforcement. It cannot be tolerated.”

Speaking for both families, seasoned civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said, “Those that try now to misuse the names of the victims are not only wrong morally … they are hurting the cause of these families, and they are as insensitive to these families as those that oppose them.”

At a press conference Sunday afternoon, the family of one of the officers killed also appealed for calm. Lucy Ramos, Rafael Ramos’ aunt, said she hoped people would choose a “path of peaceful coexistence” after the incident.

Earlier on Sunday, New York’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan warned of rising tensions during a Sunday service attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

"We worry about a city tempted to tension and division," Dolan said at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He asked the police commissioner to tell his troops that "we love them very much, we mourn with them, we need them, we respect them, we’re proud of them, and we thank them.”

The NAACP condemned the attack Sunday but sought to disassociate the incident with the activism that has followed Garner’s and Brown’s deaths.

“There is no connection between the peaceful protest of thousands of people of all races all over the country and, indeed, around the world, and this hideous act of violence,” it said in a statement.

Sunday evening, about 100 protesters, part of a group that recently met with de Blasio to call for police reforms, held a demonstration on Sunday night in Harlem. In contrast to usually boisterous protests critical of police, participants marched in silence bearing candles.

On Saturday night, President Barack Obama joined the chorus of those urging against inflaming tensions between police and black communities.

“The officers who serve and protect our communities risk their own safety for ours every single day — and they deserve our respect and gratitude every single day,” he said. “Tonight I ask people to reject violence and words that harm and turn to words that heal — prayer, patient dialogue and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen.”

But tensions remain high over the incident, especially in New York, and while the attack appears to have been premeditated and unprovoked, details emerged Sunday about the Brinsley and how police departments nationwide are responding to the deaths.

Brinsley approached people on the street moments before opening fire and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them to “watch what I'm going to do,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce at a Sunday news conference.

Investigators were trying to determine if Brinsley took part in any protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner, whose names he invoked in his online threat, or simply latched onto the cause for the final act of a violent spree. Police said he had no gang affiliation.

Brinsley, 28, had at least 19 arrests in Georgia and Ohio and a troubled childhood so violent his mother was afraid of him, police said. He had also ranted online about police and government and expressed despair about his own life, Boyce said.

Boyce said Brinsley’s mother believed he had undiagnosed mental problems and may have been on medication later in life; detective said they were still trying to determine if he had a mental illness.

On Saturday, Bratton said Brinsley seemed to have “a very strong bias against police officers.” He added that the two officers had no chance, that they were “quite simply assassinated.”

The gunman walked in front of their parked vehicle, took a shooting stance and opened fire. He later took his own life in a subway station.

The attack came amid tensions between some members of the police and de Blasio, accused by some police officers of not showing sufficient support in the face of public anger. Several officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he arrived at the Brooklyn hospital where the two officers were taken after they were shot.

Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said there was “blood on many hands” after the attack, explicitly blaming the mayor and protesters.

On Sunday, a union-generated message warned police officers they should respond to every radio call with two cars — “no matter what the opinion of the patrol supervisor” — and to not make arrests “unless absolutely necessary.”

The president of the detectives’ union told members in a letter to work in threes when out on the street, wear bulletproof vests and keep aware of their surroundings.

“Cowards such as yesterday’s killer strike when you are distracted and vulnerable,” the letter read.

Another directive warned officers in Newark, New Jersey, not to patrol alone and to avoid people looking for confrontations with them.

The St. Louis Police Officers Association on Sunday asked the department to step up security, while Baltimore’s police union said the current political environment was the most dangerous for officers since the 1960s.

The Saturday killings were the first fatal shootings of NYPD members since 2011 — when the overall number of officers shot in the U.S. stood at 171, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Since then the figure has fallen, to 100 for 2013.

But underscoring the dangers faced by police in a country with notoriously loose gun laws, another officer was shot dead in Florida just hours after the New York slayings. The suspect in that shooting, which took place around 3 a.m. local time in Tarpon Springs, was taken into custody.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Sunday that police have arrested 23-year-old Marco Antonio Parilla Jr. on suspicion of first-degree murder. Parilla was a fugitive trying to evade a warrant, according to authorities.

The shooting does not appear to have any connection to the ambush killings of two New York police officers, even though the slain officer, Charles Kondek, previously served with the New York City Police Department for more than five years.