NEW YORK — A police officer was shot to death early Wednesday, ambushed inside her command post RV by an ex-convict who once ranted online about his treatment in prison and about police getting away with killing people, authorities said. He was later killed after pulling a gun on police.
The officer, a 12-year member of the New York Police Department, was wrapping up her shift when the man fired one round through the passenger-side window and struck her in the head.
"PO Miosotis Familia has been assassinated in an unprovoked attack on cops assigned to keep NYers safe," Police Commissioner James O'Neill tweeted after her death.
Her partner radioed for help.
"Shots fired! 10-85!" the officer is heard frantically shouting after the gunfire, including the code for an officer down. "My partner's shot! My partner's shot! My partner's shot! Hurry up, central!"
Officers responded quickly and caught up to 34-year-old Alexander Bonds about a block away, police said. As they confronted him, he pulled a revolver, and police fired, killing him. A silver revolver was found at the scene. A bystander was hit in the stomach by a bullet and is in stable condition, police said.
Familia, 48, had been stationed in a mobile command post, an RV-sized truck used as a communications hub during major events and in high-crime areas as a constant police presence. She had been writing in her memo book, a police log where officers record their shift activity, when Bonds walked up.
Bonds, who also went by the name John Bonds, was sentenced to six years in prison on an armed robbery case in Syracuse and had been released on parole in 2013. His supervision was set to end next May.
Bonds was captured on video exiting a nearby convenience store, then moving tightly along the wall, pulling his hoodie over his head and walking purposefully toward the van. The video doesn't capture the shooting but shows him running from the scene with a gun in his hand, police said.
In a video posted on Facebook in September, the Bronx man ranted about the treatment of civilians by officers and talked about how hard life was behind bars. The photos of Bonds posted on the page match a police mugshot.
"Don't think every brother, cousin, uncle you got that get killed in jail is because of a Blood or Crip or Latin King killing them. Nah, police be killing them and saying that an inmate killed them," he said in the video.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.