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- Two officers with the New York Police Department were shot in less than 24 hours in attacks authorities called assassination attempts.
- The attacks were both ambushes on officers located in the Bronx, though police could reportedly not confirm if they were connected.
- Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned “blind hatred” carried out on the city’s police officers.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Two officers with the New York Police Department were shot in less than 24 hours in the Bronx in what Mayor Bill de Blasio called “assassination” attempts.
On Saturday night, a man in a black jacket approached two police officers sitting in a van to ask for directions before opening fire into the car, injuring one officer and missing the second, according to WABC New York. The wounded officer is expected to recover.
Police were still searching for the man the next day, as NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison tweeted images from surveillance video of the suspect in a black puffer jacket.
De Blasio took to Twitter after the attack to condemn the “heinous assassination attempt” and “blind hatred” on the police officers, vowing that city authorities “will stop at nothing to find the perpetrator and bring him to justice.”
Hours after the initial attack, a man walked into the 41st precinct in the Bronx and shot an officer just before 8 a.m. Sunday morning, according to the department. The officer was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening inuries, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson tweeted.
A suspect was taken into custody in connection to Sunday’s shooting. NY1’s Dean Meminger reported that sources said police believe the suspect was the shooter in both cases, but the department did not publicly confirm the two shootings were connected.
“This vicious assassination attempt is the second one we’ve seen in 24 hours — and an attack on our NYPD officers is an attack on ALL New Yorkers,” de Blasio said in a tweet. “This despicable hatred is an attempt to divide our city and undermine our safety. We cannot and will not let that happen.”
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