NEW YORK — An NYPD police officer died Monday, two days after being shot in the head while sitting in an unmarked car in Queens, CBS News has confirmed.
Officer BrianMoore, 25, had been in a medically-induced coma after undergoing surgery for what court papers described as “severe injuries to his skull and brain.”
District Attorney Richard Brown told The Associated Press on Sunday that Moore was “fighting for his life.”
He was removed from life support at 11:15 a.m. Monday.
The suspect, 35-year-old Demetrius Blackwell, was ordered held without bail Sunday after appearing in Queens Criminal Court. He did not enter a plea to charges of attempted murder.
Prosecutors planned to present the case to a grand jury before Blackwell’s next court appearance on Friday.
Blackwell’s court-appointed lawyer, David Bart, said his client denied the charges, which also include assault and weapons offenses.
Police on Monday continued to search for the weapon.
“This was nothing more and nothing less than a cold-blooded attempt at an assassination of New York’s finest,” Assistant District Attorney Peter McCormack said.
McCormack said Moore and patrol partner Erik Jansen – both in plainclothes in an unmarked police car – approached Blackwell on a Queens street after seeing him tugging at his waistband around 6:15 p.m. Saturday and asked him “What are you carrying?”
The officers ordered Blackwell to stop and exchanged words with him. That’s when Blackwell turned, the prosecutor said, and “in a vicious manner started to fire” – at least two shots.
Jansen was not hit and radioed for help.
CBS New York reports that Blackwell, known on the street as “Hellraiser,” has nine previous arrests on his record, including charges of attempted murder, robbery, weapons possession and assault on two officers, authorities said. In 2013 he was arrested on attempted grand larceny charges. That same year, he was also charged for assault on a police officer.
A woman, who would not give her name, told CBS New York she lives at the house where Blackwell was arrested. Immediately after the shooting, she said Blackwell was talking to her on her front yard, acting normal, as if nothing had happened. She said she didn’t know he’d allegedly shot a cop.
“He was standing outside for an hour and a half before they realized it was him,” she said.
