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Read the press release here.

Slain Correction Officer's Ex May Have Planted Phony NYPD Tip: Source

By Murray Weiss | December 16, 2016 10:48am
 Corrections officer Alastasia Bryan was fatally shot in the head and torso, police said.
Corrections officer Alastasia Bryan was fatally shot in the head and torso, police said.
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Family handout and DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

MILL BASIN — Police believe the ex-boyfriend of slain correction officer Alastasia Bryan may have tried to throw detectives off his trail by getting an accomplice to call the NYPD’s hotline with a phony tip that included the name of the “shooter,” a motive, and where he could be found, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The NYPD Crimes Stoppers hotline received a very detailed anonymous call several days after Bryan’s assassination from a caller saying her killer was a gangbanger named "Kareem Isaac," who belonged to the Pekdem crew in Canarsie, sources said.

The tipster also insisted Bryan's “hit” was contracted by an inmate at Rikers Island, where she had recently started to work as a rookie officer.

The caller, however, did not name the inmate, or why he wanted her dead.

But the tipster said the killer also drove a tan Infiniti Jeep that loosely resembles the description of Bryan's ex-boyfriend's car, and also described an alleged accomplice's getaway car — a tan four-door Hyundai Elantra.

Sources said they now believe the caller was either Bryan's ex, Keon Richmond, 34, or someone he put up to make the call.

Bryan was executed as she sat in her 2016 Infiniti outside her home on East 73rd Street and Avenue L on December 4. Sources have said they believe Richmond killed her because she had demanded he return her BMW.

NYPD detectives took the Crime Stopper tip seriously, running down every aspect of the call, until they determined that it was “unfounded.” Sources said detectives couldn't find anyone named “Kareem Isaacs," much less one who belonged to a gang or was linked to Canarsie. 

“We believe Richmond is a person of interest in Bryan’s murder, and probably behind the false Crime Stoppers tip designed to throw detectives off his trail,” a source explained, adding that Richmond was a "person of interest" from the start.

 An ex-boyfriend of slain correction officer Alastasia Bryan wanted as a
An ex-boyfriend of slain correction officer Alastasia Bryan wanted as a "person of interest" in her assassination Dec. 4.
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NYPD

Richmond had threatened Bryan twice before her death, and tried to run her off the road in May. He had threatened her after she demanded he return the 2010 BMW she owned, police said. When he refused, she reported it stolen — which ultimately led to Richmond's arrest Nov. 2 outside of Resorts World Casino for stealing her car.

Richmond also had a history of menacing a different ex-girlfriend from Jamaica, Queens, and allegedly torched her car and ransacked her home Oct. 23. 

Richmond was arraigned in connection to the Oct. 23 incident in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday, a day after a team of agents and detectives from the US Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force found him hiding in a closet in a Flatbush home.

He and his new girlfriend, Shirley Mejia, were charged with arson after allegedly torching his ex's 2013 Nissan Maxima in front of her East New York home.

He was ordered held without bail and was taken to a Westchester prison instead of the customary Rikers Island, where Bryan worked.

Mejia was being held at a Passaic, N.J. jail 

Richmond may be facing deportation, prosecutors said.

Police ask anyone with information about Bryan's murder to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.