‘Hit’ is eyed in jailer slay
Loved ones grieve at B’klyn vigil
COPS ARE searching for a contract killer suspected of fatally shooting a rookie correction officer in Brooklyn, police sources said Monday.
Correction Officer Alastasia Bryan, 25, was shot in the chest, stomach, right forearm and right hand as she sat in her parked 2016 Infiniti making a phone call in Bergen Beach on Sunday at 9:15 p.m., sources said.
Cops recovered security video that appears to show the gunman reverse his car into a parking spot and then lay in wait for about an hour until ambushing Bryan when she got into her car, the sources said.
The shooter fled in his car after pumping five rounds into Bryan’s driver-side window on E. 73rd St. near Avenue L. She died at the scene.
Investigators suspect an inmate at Rikers Island put a hit out on Bryan, though correction officials told cops she had little to no contact with prisoners, sources said.
Bryan, who was still in training and did not even carry a handgun, was posted in the Anna M. Kross Center at the jail complex, where she did administrative work. Sources said she didn’t have enough contact with inmates to have made any enemies inside.
Her ex-boyfriend, however, had extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system, having been arrested 31 times, including twice in May 2015 for domestic incidents involving Bryan, the sources said.
On May 24, 2015, while Bryan was working as a peace officer at Kingsborough Community College, her ex-boyfriend called and threatened to run her off the road when she clocked out, sources said. True to his word, he charged her as she pulled out of the campus.
Two days later, he called her again, saying he would shoot up her house and have people watch her home — and that he would kill her if she told anyone, sources said.
After the two May incidents, the college boosted security around campus as a precaution.
Bryan’s mother told police after the Sunday slaying that her daughter and the ex-boyfriend had recently broken up and that the man was furious over her request that he return a BMW she leased for him in her name.
Cops are looking to question the ex-boyfriend.
“We have a long way to go on this investigation,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. “We have some very strong leads.” “On behalf of 8.5M NYers, deepest condolences to Alastasia Bryan’s family, friends and the Department of Corrections,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted Monday.
On Monday night, family members and community activist Tony Herbert blasted the mayor for not being present at a candlelight vigil for Bryan that was held a block from the slaying.
“I don’t understand why the mayor’s not out here,” said Bryan’s cousin, Carol Moore.
Herbert and several others at the vigil noted de Blasio found time Monday to hold a press conference alongside NYPD Officer Aml Elsokary, who was the victim of an alleged anti-Muslim hate crime.
“Mr. Mayor, where you at?” Herbert said.
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips said Hizzoner called both Bryan’s mother and brother to offer his condolences.
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.