New York City's police commissioner says the gunman who ambushed and killed two police officers had made online posts that were "very anti-police."
Police Commissioner William Bratton choked up at a news conference Saturday afternoon as he talked about the fatal shootings of two officers in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
Bratton says the gunman shot and wounded his former girlfriend in Baltimore earlier Saturday and made posts from her Instagram account.
Authorities didn't get into the specifics of the contents of the posts, but two officials told The Associated Press that he posted about shooting two "pigs" in retaliation for the death of Eric Garner. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Authorities say the gunman fatally shot himself after killing the officers. He was identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley.
The unconfirmed post quickly became a sensation on the web and the account of the poster, “dontrunup”, was quickly closed by Instagram.
The posting shows a picture of the trigger of a semi-automatic handgun.
The posterr made the following claim: “I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Took 1 of Ours . . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”
The poster cited social media accounts supporting Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two well-publicized cases of African-Americans killed by the police.
The poster ended the post by writing, “This may be my Final Post.”
A source close to the New York Police Department told Newsmax that the post remains unconfirmed but “is the type of nasty, anti-police stuff being promoted online” in the wake of the Garner and Brown deaths.