Gunman in New York police killing had prior officer assault charge

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NEW YORK – A New York City police officer was shot and killed in an unprovoked attack on Wednesday by a gunman who was shot dead as he ran from the scene and who had been arrested more than a decade ago for assaulting a police officer, authorities said.

The officer, Miosotis Familia, 48, a 12-year veteran of the force, was shot in the head as she sat in a mobile command truck in the Bronx borough with her partner at about 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT), the New York Police Department said.

“It is clear that this was an unprovoked direct attack on police officers who were assigned to keep the people of this city safe,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill told a news conference.

Suspected killer Alexander Bonds, 34, had been arrested six times, including once in 2001 for assaulting an officer in the borough of Queens, said NYPD spokesman Detective Ahmed Nasser. Bonds was on parole after being convicted of a robbery in Syracuse, New York, according to a police source.

Bonds’ social media history included an anti-police rant, posted in a Facebook Live video in September.

“That ain’t no badge of honor or nothing,” Bonds said in the video. “I don’t care about a 100 police watching this shit. You can see this face.”

A bystander was shot and wounded during the chase that ended in Bonds’ death. The bystander, who was not identified, was in stable condition at a hospital, police said.

The apparently unprovoked shooting was similar in style to the December 2014 ambush of two New York City police officers who were slain as they sat in a patrol car by a man who traveled to the city from Baltimore after promising to kill officers.

The two officers’ deaths stoked tensions between City Hall, the police department and reform-minded protesters who had voted Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio into office.

A total of 24 U.S. law enforcement officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year, a 9 percent increase from the same period in 2016, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund, which tracks police deaths.

Familia was the eighth New York City police officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty over the last five years.

She had three children, according to the city’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association union.