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TOWSON, Md. (AP) — The ex-girlfriend of the man who ambushed two NYPD officers screamed for help after she was shot, banged on a neighbor's door and said: "I can't die like this, please please help me," according to the neighbor who said she saw the woman and called for help.
Yevette Seay told The Associated Press on Sunday that her neighbor, 29-year-old Shaneka Thompson, banged on her apartment door in Maryland for help after being shot. Seay said she talked to Thompson through her closed front door and she could see the bloodied woman through the peep hole.
Seay said Thompson wanted her to open her door, but she didn't know what was going on, so she kept it closed and called 911. She said there was blood all over the carpet in the hallway.
"I told her to hang in there. I was afraid to ask her too many questions because she was hysterical," Seay said.
Police said Thompson's ex-boyfriend, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, shot her in the stomach around 5:45 a.m. Saturday and then fled to New York, where he gunned down two officers in a squad car. Brinsley, who ended up killing himself, had vowed online to put "wings on pigs" after shooting Thompson.
Thompson was in critical condition at a University of Maryland Medical Center and is expected to survive.
Detectives from New York and Baltimore County interviewed Thompson from her hospital bed Sunday night. She told officers that she had been romantically involved with Brinsley and that he shot her following a dispute about their relationship status, Baltimore County police said Monday. Police in New York said Monday that Brinsley held a gun to his own head during the encounter before Thompson talked him down.
Thompson told investigators that Brinsley didn't say anything about harming police officers and or mention police in any way, police said. The two argued after he showed up unannounced at the door of her apartment early Saturday morning, according to police, who said Brinsley did not have a key but somehow got inside the lobby of her building before knocking on her door. After he shot her, he took her cellphone, police said.
Thompson's grandfather, James Delly, said from his home in Blythewood, South Carolina, on Monday morning that he had been in touch by phone with Thompson's mother and that Thompson was doing OK. He said he didn't know Brinsley and that Thompson had never mentioned him.
"She's my granddaughter. She's a hard-working girl, and I love her," Delly said.
Thompson is an Air Force reservist, stationed at Pope Field at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she works in medical administration and carries the rank of staff sergeant, said Maj. Lisa Ray, a spokeswoman for the 440th Airlift Wing.
Seay said Thompson moved in a few months ago. The two would exchange hellos but Seay did not know her. Seay said she had heard her neighbors fight before, but the screaming got her out of bed Saturday morning.
"I could hear something going on and it wasn't pleasant. Then I heard some screaming, then she went out onto her balcony and screamed for help," Seay said.
According to Seay, Thompson said: "'He shot me, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.'"
Seay said police arrived in about seven or eight minutes.
Seay's sister had left the apartment to go to work and saw a man running through the parking lot, Seay said. After seeing news reports about the New York shooting and the suspect's photo, Seay's sister figured out it that she had seen Brinsley running.
"We were right there in the middle of that, and to know what he did afterwards was even more disturbing," Seay said.
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Associated Press writer Ben Nuckols in Washington contributed to this report.
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