What to Know
- Two Iowa police officers were shot dead in their cars in separate "ambush-style" attacks early Wednesday
- Police identified Scott Michael Greene, 46, as a suspect in the shootings
- The attacks come almost exactly four months after a sniper opened fire on a police brutality protest in Dallas, Texas, killing five cops
Police departments on Long Island say they're stepping up patrols and intensely monitoring social media in response to the ambush-style slayings of two Iowa police officers early Wednesday.
No specific threats to New York have been identified, but Nassau and Suffolk police say they are coordinating with federal and other local authorities as a precaution.
The departments expressed their "heartfelt prayers and condolences" to the police officers and their families. The NYPD also tweeted its sympathies.
Our prayers are with the families and colleagues of the officers killed in the line of duty in the Des Moines area of Iowa. #NeverForget
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 2, 2016
The two officers, who have not been identified, were shot to death in their cars during separate attacks in Des Moines.
The suspect, 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene, was taken into custody hours after authorities released an image of him and information on his vehicle.
Local
The Des Moines Police Department said in a statement the first officer was found dead at around 1:06 a.m. (2:06 a.m. ET) in Urbandale, which is a suburb of the Iowa city that has its own force. The second officer's body was located in Des Moines at 1:26 (2:26 a.m. ET). The two locations are about 2 miles apart. The officer died shortly after being taken to hospital.
Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department, said there was a "clear and present danger to police officers."
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The attacks come almost exactly four months after a sniper opened fire on a police brutality protest in Dallas killing five police officers. Another seven cops were injured in the July 7 ambush. The shooter, 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, fled into a building after a shooting. Police followed him and killed him with a bomb attached to a robot.
An aunt told NBC News that she believed Johnson — who told a hostage negotiator he wanted to "kill white people," according to authorities — was driven to attack by recent incidents in which black men were killed by cops.
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