NYPD cop ‘assassinated’ in unprovoked attack
12-year veteran was shot in her vehicle by suspect with extensive rap sheet
A New York police officer was killed execution-style as she sat in her police vehicle early Wednesday morning in the Bronx.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill identified the slain officer as Miosotis Familia, 48, a 12-year veteran of the department.
After the shooting, her partner, who was in the vehicle, radioed for assistance and other officers found the suspect about a block away. The suspect drew a revolver and the officers fatally shot him, O’Neill said at a news conference at St. Barnabas Hospital, where Familia was taken.
The suspect was identified as Alexander Bonds, a police spokes- person told USA TODAY. According to the New York Daily News, Bonds had as many as six aliases and a long rap sheet, including prison time.
In a tweet, O’Neill said that Familia had been “assassinated in an unprovoked attack on cops assigned to keep NYers safe. Keep her family in your prayers.”
O’Neill said the gunman fired one bullet, striking Familia in the head as she neared the end of her shift in the Fordham Heights neighborhood.
A bystander was shot as police confronted the suspect, police said. The person is in stable condition.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Familia’s fatal shooting “a cowardly, unprovoked attack.”
“This murder in cold blood is a tragedy, and sadly it is the latest in a troubling series of attacks on police officers over the past two years,” Sessions said. “These attacks must stop and we must honor the service of every law enforcement officer and the memory of those we have lost in the line of duty.”
The killing took place as New Yorkers marked July 4.
“The city was celebrating our Independence Day,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio at the news conference. “One of those days we look forward to each year. The NYPD did an extraordinary job keeping our city safe ... and tragedy struck.”