NYPD Cops Warned Militant Group Black Guerilla Family ‘Preparing To Shoot On-Duty Police Officers’

An NYPD confidential informant learned of the threat on Friday evening — three days after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Cop union confirmed the threat late Saturday and were ordering all police officers, on duty and off, to take extra precautions.

December 7, 2014

A tattooed gang of militants declared open season on the NYPD in the wake of the Eric Garner grand jury decision, according to a threat a police union verified Saturday.

Ten Black Guerrilla Family members are “preparing to shoot on duty police officers,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said.

The gang, formed in the 1960s in the California prison system, recently surfaced on the East Coast and Maryland, where members are at the heart of a drug-trafficking and corruption probe within the Baltimore prison system.

Members swear allegiance for life and sport “BGF” tattoos, as well as ink depicting a dragon surrounding a prison tower, according to gangs.org.


Letter being disseminated to policemen in the NYPD after learning of a possible threat from the Black Guerilla Family.

An undercover NYPD cop learned of the hit put out on officers Friday evening — three days after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death. Mullins confirmed late Saturday night that the gang was gunning for officers.

Union leaders ordered all officers, on duty and off, to take extra precautions.

“Please WEAR your VESTS and carry your firearm off-duty along with additional magazines,” Mullins said in an alert. “Your priority is to go home at the end of your tour!”

Mullins does not believe the threat is directly related to the Garner decision.

“I think it’s related to the whole atmosphere,” he said. “Who knows if there’s a lone wolf out there or a small group that wants to do something.”




Police Believe New York City Cop Killer Was A Member Of The Black Guerrilla Family: Sources

Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, shot two cops dead as they sat in a patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant to avenge the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. He also shot his former girlfriend at her home in the Baltimore area on Saturday morning, police said. Law enforcement sources said the NYPD has dispatched investigators to Baltimore to probe Brinsley's past and suspected involvement with the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang

December 20, 2014

The cold-blooded cop-hater who gunned down two police officers in Brooklyn on Saturday is suspected of being a member of a notorious prison gang that has declared open season on the NYPD.

Detectives were headed to Baltimore on Saturday night to probe Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, sources told the Daily News.

One source said Baltimore police were already investigating Brinsley’s connection to the gang, which started in California’s San Quentin Prison in the 1960s by Black Panther member George Jackson.

“BGF has been talking about getting back at cops for Eric Garner and Ferguson,” a source told The News, citing intelligence intercepted in Baltimore area prisons.

Brinsley boasted on social media about wanting to kill cops hours before ambushing two police officers on Saturday afternoon as they sat in their patrol car outside the Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“I’m putting wings on pigs today,” he posted on Instagram, referencing the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island.

At a press conference on Saturday night, Mayor de Blasio called Brinsley "this horrible assassin."

Brinsley, 28, also shot his former girlfriend in her home outside of Baltimore about 5:45 a.m. before traveling to New York, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said. He took his life by shooting himself in the head inside a subway station near the Tompkins Houses after ambushing the two cops.

The stunning events in New York came just days after Black Guerrilla Family members began spreading the word that they were “preparing to shoot on-duty police officers.”

As the Daily News reported on Dec. 6, an undercover NYPD cop learned of a Black Guerrilla Family plot to kill NYPD officers on Dec. 5 — three days after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s chokehold death in July. At least ten BGF members were “preparing to shoot on duty police officers,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said at the time.

The threat prompted police union leaders to advise NYPD officers to take extra precautions, including carrying additional ammunition and wearing bullet-proof vests at all times.

But the NYPD investigated the intelligence and later deemed, as The News reported on Dec. 7, that there was no "credible threat" posed by the BGF. “We are aware of the reports of this anonymous general threat against police. However, at this time there is no information to indicate that this is a credible threat against the NYPD,” an NYPD spokesman said at the time.

There also was another reported threat. On Nov. 25, the NYPD spokesman said then, a police department outside of New York received a threat through an anonymous 911 call. The call, which was made to the Baltimore police department, threatened violent retribution against “cops” but did not name a specific department, according to a police source.

Investigative work on that call led NYPD investigators to conclude that the November threat was not real, the NYPD spokesman said, but the department would continue to monitor developments.

Bratton said at the press conference Saturday night that after Brinsley shot his former flame, her family notified Baltimore authorities that he was posting threats on Instagram. The authorities there sent a warning to the NYPD by fax, but it was not received until right about the time that Brinsely struck in Bed-Stuy, Bratton said.

Last year Baltimore law enforcement officials cracked down on the BGF’s stranglehold on the Baltimore City Detention Center because the gang was extorting people, intimidating witnesses and dealing drugs with help from correction officers. An investigation led to the arrest of two inmates and five corrections officers on charges of extortion, witness intimidation and drug dealing in the city jail.