This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
New York • A 25-year-old police officer shot in the head while attempting to stop a man suspected of carrying a handgun died Monday from his injuries, the third New York City officer slain while on duty in five months.
Brian Moore, who was in a coma after undergoing brain surgery after the Saturday evening shooting, was pronounced dead at a Queens hospital with his family, including his police officer father, uncle and cousin, at his bedside.
Hundreds of uniformed officers stood at attention outside the hospital and lined up along the block to salute the ambulance carrying his body. Afterward, many could be seen crying and consoling one another.
"He proved himself to be an exceptional young officer," Police Commissioner William Bratton said, noting Moore had made more than 150 arrests in less than five years on the job and earned meritorious service medals.
Moore and his partner were in plainclothes and in an unmarked police car when they approached Demetrius Blackwell in a quiet Queens neighborhood after they saw him adjusting his waistband, a move that made them suspicious he had a handgun, authorities said.
The officers pulled up next to Blackwell, 35, and exchanged words before the man suddenly turned, pulled out a weapon and fired at least twice, striking Moore in the head and face, according to court documents.
Blackwell has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes. He is being held without bail and has not entered a plea. He will be charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors said.
Investigators discovered the handgun used in the shooting under a box near a backyard grill along the route Blackwell fled after the shooting, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. The gun, which had two live rounds still in the chamber, was one of 23 weapons reported stolen in October 2011 from a bait-and-tackle shop in Perry, Georgia, he said. Ten of those weapons have since been recovered — nine of them in New York.
Mayor Bill de Blasio mourned Moore's death.
"He risked his life for a very simple notion: to keep everyone else safe, to keep our society safe, to keep order," the mayor said at an evening news conference. "This is what he wanted to do."
He is the first city officer to be killed on duty since two uniformed police officers were slain in December in Brooklyn.
Officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot at close range as they were sitting in their patrol car Dec. 20. The gunman, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, then ran into a nearby subway station and fatally shot himself.