AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: AUGUST 2017 31 Familia was the first fe- male New York Police De- partment officer killed in the line of duty since the Sep- tember 11, 2001 attacks. Responding officers con- fronted the cop-killer just a block away from the murder and shot him dead after he aimed his weapon at them. Bonds, who frequently posted his hatred for law enforcement on social me- dia and had been in and out of prisons and jails for 15 years, warned in a Facebook video that he would target officers when the opportu- nity presented itself. “I got broken ribs for a reason, son. We gonna shake,” Bonds posted on Facebook last year. NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said in a mes- sage to officers that she was “assassinated without warn- ing, without provocation, in a direct attack on police offi- cers assigned to safeguard the people of New York City.” The shoot- ing occurred as fireworks were going off during Independence Day celebra- tions. At about 12:30 AM, Of- ficer Familia’s distraught partner, Vincent Maher, was on the radio. “My partner’s shot! My partner’s shot!” “Bonds clearly had to look at her to get the kind of target acquisition it would take to shoot somebody in the head,” a law enforce- ment official said. “It does not appear that he fired a whole lot of shots at her. So it looked like a straight-up assassination.” As was the case with the murders of NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in 2014, the shooter appears to have a history of serious mental illness. Bonds’ aunt, Nancy Ke- arse, 55, said he had been released from a Bronx hospital just a week pri- or and was diagnosed as schizophrenia and bipolar. He had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication. Bonds has been admitted to mental health facilities frequently over the last 15 years. Officer Familia, just 48, was a rising star in the NYPD. She was known for a no- nonsense attitude and had made a name for herself as a quality police officer in her 12-year career. She grew up in Washing- ton Heights in Manhattan and joined the force in her mid-30s. Familia raised a daugh- ter as well as a set of twins in addition to taking care of her mother. “She was a warrior, tell you the truth,” John Cuello, a nephew, said. “She was a fighter, she was tough — and that was the job for her.” F a m i l i a made 76 ar- rests over her career, 23 of them felo- nies. On July 4, Mr. Bonds returned from work at a fast-food restaurant around 7:30 PM and started drink- ing with friends on the corner, according to a neighbor who spoke with reporters from The New York Times. Bonds’ behavior alarmed his girlfriend. She was worried enough that at about 9 PM, she called the police several times as she followed him down a street while telling dispatchers that he was paranoid and manic, a law enforcement official said. But when the dis- patcher asked if he was armed or violent she said no. Shortly after mid- night Bonds turned toward the mobile command post and fired one shot through a passenger-side win- dow, said J. Peter Donald. “Make no mistake: Officer Familia was murdered for her uniform and for the responsibility she embraced,” Commis- sioner O’Neill said. “And for the N.Y.P.D., regularly achieving lower and lower crime figures means abso- lutely nothing when one of our own is bru- tally shot and killed.” The murder immedi- ately brought to mind the killings of NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael L. Ramos. They were shot and killed while sitting in a patrol car in the Bed- ford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn right before Christmas, 2014. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the man that shot and killed the two officers, had trav- eled to the city from Bal- timore threatening to kill cops. Like Bonds, Brinsley had a long history of men- tal illness. He shot himself fatally after killing Liu and Ramos. Because this is the third officer killed in a police vehicle in three years, the NYPD has recently in- stalled bulletproof protec- tion on the doors of more than 2,000 patrol cars. Last January the city allocated funding for bul- letproof window panels on 3,800 cars and last month the agency received its first delivery of 500 pairs of bulletproof windows. A rising star is gone Continued from page one “She was a warrior, tell you the truth,” John Cuello, a nephew, said. “She was a fighter, she was tough — and that was the job for her.” Officer Familia was the first female New York Police Department officer killed in the line of duty since the Sept. 11 attacks. She is described by friends, colleagues and family as a great mom, a great cop, and an inspiration. NSA WEBINAR SERIES Featuring a new educational webinar on the second Thursday of each month at 2:00pm ET. Visit www.sheriffs.org/webinarsapb to view upcoming and archived webinars.