2014 killings of NYPD officers

According to articles from NBC News, New York Daily News, and Global News, on the night that Wenjian Liu died, under the request of the widow Peixia Chen with the approval of family members, the medical doctors retrieved and collected Liu's semen for preservation to allow Chen the chance to conceive a child belonging to her and Liu. After being artificially inseminated, Chen successfully became pregnant and then, in July 2017, gave birth to a girl named Angelina. In late 2021, Peixia Chen attempted to use her late husband's NYPD benefits plan to file for Child Survivor Benefits with the Social Security Administration for their daughter Angelina Liu, but was initially denied twice due to an outdated legal definition of the term "biological parents"; moreover, the denial claim stated that Wen Jian Liu did not provide a signed consent with two witnesses to provide permission to use his sperm for conceiving a child. These hurdles were finally removed when Senator Andrew Gounardes, with the help of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, stepped in and had the law amended to recognize the validity of a child's biological parents having conceived him or her through in vitro fertilisation, and in the end Peixia Chen was able to claim Child Survivor Benefits for her daughter Angelina Liu.

In April 2016, officers Angelo Pampena and Robert Carbone were charged with the retaliatory beating of mail carrier Karim Baker, who unwittingly provided Brinsley with directions. The beating was alleged to have occurred when the officers approached Baker in October 2015; according to the Queens district attorney, Baker was seated in his car when the officers punched and kicked him multiple times and dragged him from his car. Baker's lawyer said Baker sustained injuries to his spine, knee and face, causing Baker to be unable to return to work. Pampena stated in a criminal court complaint that the officers approached Baker because he had parked his car directly in front of a fire hydrant, but surveillance video footage showed Baker's car parked more than 15 feet away from the fire hydrant. There were audio recordings of the encounter based on calls to 911 from Baker's cellphone during the time. The criminal case against Baker was dropped with the file sealed. In March 2017, they were found not guilty of all charges by judge Michael Aloise, and their case was sealed. However, a lawsuit filed by Baker was settled for $1.5 million in October 2019.

On December 20, 2014, Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley shot and killed Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu — two on-duty New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers — in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Brinsley then fled into the New York City Subway, where he died by suicide. Earlier in the day, before he killed Ramos and Liu, Brinsley had shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend Shaneka Thompson in Baltimore after initially pointing the gun at his own head.

The shooting occurred just weeks after a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was responsible for the death of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014. The grand jury's decision resulted in widespread protests in New York City and across the nation against police brutality and the lack of accountability for it. The protests also coincided with widespread protests in response to a grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9. Brinsley's motive to kill the NYPD officers was motivated by outrage over the two deaths.

Six people were arrested for making terroristic threats against NYPD officers in the week following the shooting. After a police union directive in December 2014, the police have been dispatching two cars in response to every call, contributing to a lack of manpower, and as a result, a 94% drop in summonses for minor offenses and a 66% reduction in arrests.

Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley (October 31, 1986 – December 20, 2014) had a long criminal record and was estranged from his family prior to the shooting. He was born in Brooklyn. He had an arrest record for weapons possession and robbery, which amounted to a total of 19 arrests in Georgia and Ohio. He was convicted of felony gun possession in Georgia, where he was living at the time of the shooting. Brinsley allegedly had ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, a prison gang that was reportedly planning revenge attacks on police officers according to police informants, and the Nuwaubian Nation, a black-supremacist cult originating in Georgia. But an unnamed federal law enforcement source has been quoted as saying there were no apparent ties. Daniel McCall, who was appointed to represent Brinsley in Georgia, said Brinsley was not difficult to represent and that no psychiatric problems were noticed at that time.

Wenjian Liu (simplified Chinese: 刘文健; traditional Chinese: 劉文健; pinyin: Liú Wénjiàn; April 8, 1982 – December 20, 2014) was the only son of Chinese immigrants Weitang Liu and Xiuyan Li. He and his family came to the United States from Taishan, Guangdong in China, when he was 12 years old. He was a seven-year veteran officer of the NYPD who had married Peixia Chen in October 2014. He had no children at the time of death.

Rafael Ramos (December 9, 1974 – December 20, 2014), married and a father of two, resident of Glendale, Queens, had joined the NYPD as a school safety agent, before being promoted to officer in January 2012. He was active in his church, Christ Tabernacle in Glendale, and had once studied at a seminary. He had just completed a training course to become a volunteer chaplain. He planned to eventually join the ministry when he retired from the police force.

Before Brinsley arrived in Brooklyn by bus, he shot and seriously wounded his 29-year-old ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Nicole Thompson, in the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills, Maryland, on Saturday morning. The second shooting occurred at Myrtle Avenue and Tompkins Avenue, a busy intersection in Brooklyn near the Tompkins Houses. Brinsley approached the passenger window of an NYPD patrol car occupied by Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, of Brooklyn's 84th Precinct. He then fired a semiautomatic handgun four times through the open window, striking Ramos and Liu in the head and upper body, killing both officers instantly. Two Con Ed workers who witnessed the shooting notified police. After NYPD officers responding to the scene chased him onto the subway, he killed himself with the handgun in the Myrtle–Willoughby Avenues (G train) subway station, according to police. Brinsley and the two police officers were taken to Woodhull Hospital, and all were pronounced dead on arrival.