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Teenager Arrested for Aiming Gun at Police, NYPD Says

By Aidan Gardiner | December 22, 2014 11:44am
 Raymond Leonardo, 17, aimed a revolver at police just hours after two officers were killed in Brooklyn, officials said.
Raymond Leonardo, 17, aimed a revolver at police just hours after two officers were killed in Brooklyn, officials said.
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NYPD

THE BRONX — A teenage boy was arrested Saturday for aiming a gun at police just six hours after two officers were fatally shot in what officials are calling an "assassination," the NYPD said.

Raymond Leonardo, 17, had emptied his weapon shooting at about four people near East 140th Street and Cypress Avenue, but missed his targets, police said. He then moved to East 138th Street and Jackson Avenue about 8:50 p.m., where a passing driver pointed him out to police in a squad car, according to the NYPD and prosecutors.

Other responding officers then chased Leonardo to East 138th Street and Bruckner Boulevard where he wheeled around and leveled his .357-caliber revolver at them before dropping it and being arrested, police and prosecutors said.

The commanding officer of the 40th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Lorenzo Johnson, praised his officers' restraint during the incident given the heightened tension after Ismaaiyl Brinsley fatally shot officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in their squad car.

"In light of what's been going on, the officers from the 40th Precinct, they were called upon and they did a great job for the community as usual. It was great police work," Johnson said.

Leonardo, who lives nearby on East 137th Street, told investigators that he had been aiming at the group because some of them had tried to attack him about two weeks prior while he was with his sister, according to the criminal complaint.

"They were like, 'Yo yo' and I saw they were coming after me so I picked up my sister and ran home," he told prosecutors.

It was not immediately clear what they were feuding about.

Leonardo came across the group again on Saturday and recognized one of the men because of his distinctive jacket, prosecutors said.

"Once I pulled the gun they started running. I was on 140 and they were down the hill. I shot at them down the hill," he told prosecutors.

"I aimed straight but didn't hit anybody. The gun was loaded. I fired six shots right after each other. No one was hit. I ran away," he added, according to the criminal complaint.

Two bullets shattered nearby windows of apartments on the second and fourth floors of 673 E. 140th St., prosecutors said. No one was injured, police said.

Leonardo was charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm and menacing a police officer, prosecutors said.

He was held on $100,000 bail and is due back in court on Dec. 26, jail records show.