A Queens man who shot and wounded a rookie NYPD cop and tried to shoot one other after a dispute on a metropolis bus was hit with a 39-years-to-life sentence Monday.
Devin Spraggins, 24, who was convicted final month of tried homicide and different prices within the April 2023 taking pictures of metropolis cop Brett Boller on 161st Road was berated by the decide as Boller and about 50 different law enforcement officials regarded on.
Spraggins, sporting a white shirt and a striped tie, didn’t converse as Choose Kenneth Holder tore into him previous to delivering the sentence.
“For me the defining moment in this case was not that you shot police Officer Boller in the leg,” Holder informed Spraggins throughout the proceedings.
“It’s that you, not knowing the magazine had fallen out of the gun and while watching police Officer Boller on the ground screaming in pain, you pointed your gun at him and you pulled the trigger,” he mentioned. “You successfully tried to execute him.
“And here’s the irony,” the decide added. “That day and any other day police Officer Boller and police Officer [Anthony] Rock would have risked their lives to save any of your four sisters, your brother, even you. But you tried to kill him. You didn’t give a damn about his life.”
Spraggins was on an MTA bus on Jamaica Avenue on April 5, 2023, when he received right into a battle with one other passenger, then slugged the sufferer and pulled out a gun — prompting the driving force to flag down two cops.
Boller and Rock confronted Spraggins, who took off operating and fired on the officers, hitting Boller within the leg. He would have fired one other shot at Rock had his gun not malfunctioned, in line with prosecutors.
Prosecutors mentioned the gunman went house, trimmed his hair and adjusted garments to attempt to dodge justice, however was nabbed two days later after police reviewed dramatic surveillance footage of the incident.
He was arrested and charged with tried homicide of a police officer, assault, prison possession of a weapon and menacing.
Final month, he was convicted of all these prices however acquitted of tried homicide of Rock.
“All of this started because of a seat on a bus,” Queens District Legal professional Melinda Katz mentioned in a press release Monday. “A police officer has spent over a yr with surgical procedures and bodily remedy recovering from getting shot, and solely by a coincidence was not killed.
“With the officer on the ground this defendant did not attempt escape,” Katz mentioned. “Instead, he aimed that gun and pulled the trigger again. This would have been a cold-blooded execution if not for the magazine dropping from the gun as Spraggins ran from the police.”
Spraggins’ lawyer Michael Horn argued in courtroom Monday for the minimal sentence of 20 years to life, claiming that the system failed his consumer — contrasting his life to the wounded officer’s.
“On one side we have Officer Boller — affluent, supported, stable environment,” Horn mentioned. “Mr. Spraggins lived the opposite — broke, broken and riddled with trauma, untreated mental health issues, a family that’s full of alcoholism, abuse and absent parenting.”
However Holder shot down the lawyer’s bid for the minimal jail sentence.
“I really don’t have a lot of faith in the parole board,” the decide mentioned.
Spraggins claimed when he was questioned by detectives on the 103rd Precinct stationhouse after his arrest that the gun was in his waist and by chance went off — a declare rebuffed by video footage.
He additionally declined to testify at his prison trial or on the sentencing.
Boller was promoted to detective following the taking pictures.
“We’re thankful for this judge, who understands the importance of keeping this attempted cop killer off the streets and behind bars for a long, long time,” NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry mentioned Monday.
“What this judge did today is he sent a clear message to every courthouse across this city, to every bench, that if you assault a New York City police officer, if you shoot a New York City police officer, you’re going to stay behind bars for a long, long time.”
