New York City police have arrested two Brooklyn teenagers for making death threats against NYPD officers, and have ramped up security at a pair of Brooklyn station houses in the wake of Saturday's execution-style murder of two city cops,
according to reports.
Since Ismaaiyl Brinley shot the officers in their patrol car on Saturday in Brooklyn, "threats of other attacks on the police have streamed in" by telephone and Internet, forcing investigators to "separate serious warnings from disturbing pranks,"
The New York Times reports.
Four arrests have followed Brinsley's deadly ambush on officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, either for direct threats against police or for making false reports of threats, police said.
One suspect, Devon Coley, 18, of Brooklyn, was arrested on Monday on a charge of making a "terroristic threat," police said.
Coley admitted to posting an image on Facebook that depicted a man pointing a smoking gun inside a police vehicle, according to the criminal complaint against him,
AM New York reports.
He was released without bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court pending further hearings.
Coley's attorney, Daniel Ades, told AM New York that even if his client did post the threatening picture, his actions were the work of "somebody being a knucklehead," not a terrorist.
Another Brooklyn teen, Yasin Shearin, 16, is being held on $50,000 bail after he was arrested for also allegedly using Facebook to threaten police.
Two men were arrested on misdemeanor charges that they falsely accused other people of threatening to kill officers, police said.
New York remains on edge since the killings, which Brinsley had vowed beforehand to carry out as payback for Eric Garner, the Staten Island man whose death after an arrest attempt touched off protests across the city and damaged already tense relations between the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio.