A New York City police officer was shot and killed early Wednesday morning in what officials described as an “unprovoked attack.”
Miosotis Familia, 48, was shot while sitting in a police vehicle shortly after midnight Eastern time, the New York City Police Department said. Familia, a 12-year veteran of the force, was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where she died hours later.
Police say authorities fatally shot the suspected assailant, 34-year-old Alexander Bonds, while he was fleeing the scene.
A bystander was also hit during the incident and is in stable condition, police said.
“Based on what we know now, it is clear that this was an unprovoked direct attack on police officers who were assigned to keep the people of this city safe,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.
Familia was assigned to the 46th Precinct in the Bronx, according to the NYPD. She is survived by her three children.
“She was on duty, serving this city, protecting people, doing what she believed in and doing the job she loved,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. “And after this shocking and sudden attack, her fellow officers came to her aid immediately.”
Bonds, who went by both John and Alexander, spent 2.5 years in prison after being convicted of selling controlled substance near a school in 2004, his criminal records show. He also spent seven years in prison for a robbery near Syracuse, New York, and was paroled in May 2013. He also reportedly once assaulted a police officer with brass knuckles, according to the New York Daily News. His last recorded address was in the Bronx, according to public records.
Elaine Lucas, a friend of Bonds’, told The New York Times that she had seen him in and out of homeless shelters but that he had never appeared violent.
“He was a sweetheart,” she said. “A little hardheaded, but a sweetheart.”
The attack comes over two years after two officers were fatally shot in Brooklyn in a similar ambush-style attack. The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had posted on Instagram that he wanted retribution for the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
This article has been updated with more information about the suspected assailant.