Officer shot to death in ambush

NEW YORK — A New York City police officer was shot to death early Wednesday, ambushed inside a mobile command post by an ex-convict who had ranted online about his treatment in prison and about officers getting away with killing people, authorities said. The gunman was killed by police about a block away.

Miosotis Familia, a 12-year member of the force, was writing in her notebook in the front seat of the RV-like vehicle when the killer strode up to it in a Bronx neighbourhood around 12:30 a.m. and fired one round through the passenger-side window, striking her in the head, authorities said.

“PO Miosotis Familia has been assassinated in an unprovoked attack on cops assigned to keep NYers safe,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill tweeted.

Her partner radioed frantically for help, and police caught up to 34-year-old Alexander Bonds, who was gunned down after pulling a revolver, police said.

Witness Jay Marzelli told the Daily News that he was getting a sandwich at a bodega and thought the shots were Fourth of July fireworks at first.

“All of a sudden there was all this running and stuff going on, and I look out, probably 40, 50, 60 cops screaming, ‘Call a paramedic, clear the block!”’ he said. “It looked like there was a riot going on.”

Familia, 48, had been stationed inside the mobile command post, which had been set up in the highcrime neighbourhood since March after a triple shooting and was manned around the clock.

Bonds was sentenced to six years in Attica prison for armed robbery and had been paroled in 2013. He had other arrests, including one in 2001, when as a teenager he was accused of attacking an officer with brass knuckles.

In a video posted on Facebook in September, the Bronx man ranted about the treatment of people by officers and talked about how hard life was behind bars.

“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,” he said in the video.

Familia, a mother of three, including a set of twins, lived with her mother and worked the midnight shift in the Bronx.