'Wanted' Poster Calls for Deaths of NYPD Officers

March 19, 2013
The image calls for the murders of the two officers who fatally shot Brooklyn teen Kimani Gray.

A mock-up of a "Wanted'' poster placed on Instagram sickeningly calls for the murders of the two NYPD cops who shot and killed Brooklyn teen Kimani Gray.

The posting on the online photo-sharing Web site features pictures of Sgt. Mourad Mourad and Officer Jovaniel Cordova above the caption, "50z want these pigs heads."

A source said that the "50z" is a gang subset.

Using the handle "safjcrossfit," the poster encourages the cops' would-be killers to "empty the clip on umm."

Worried about the officers' safety, the NYPD has provided both men with police radios for them to take home, in case they encounter any trouble, sources said.

The department also has beefed up patrols in the two cops' neighborhoods, sources said.

Police sources said investigators are working to identify the person who designed and put up the image and are tracking its circulation.

Cordova and Mourad have been assigned to desk duty while the shooting is investigated.

Gray was shot seven times - including three times in the back - on the night of March 9 after the plainclothes officers said he pointed a gun at them when they instructed him to freeze during a street stop.

The deadly confrontation sparked days of violent unrest in the East Flatbush neighborhood where it occurred.

Protesters clashed with cops, pelting them with rocks and bottles, and trashed neighborhood stores as they decried Gray's killing.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has called the killing a justified shooting and said Gray's .38-caliber pistol was recovered at the scene.

Portrayals of the teen have ranged from promising schoolboy to trouble-making gangbanger.

Gray has been praised as a dedicated student by an administrator at his Manhattan high school.

"We believed in his potential from the day he entered our school," Principal Matt Willoughby wrote in a letter to parents at the school.

But cops say Gray, known as "Kiki,'' was a Bloods gang member and had a criminal record that included raps for grand larceny and inciting a riot.

The Brooklyn teen and his friends were out that night to commit a robbery, law-enforcement sources have said.

Online videos and pictures have surfaced in which the teen pronounces his allegiance to the crew by making gang signs with his hands.

Relatives maintain that Gray lived a dual life where he walked the gangster strut with friends but inwardly longed to escape his violence-plagued neighborhood and hoped to become an accountant.

Mourad has seen three civil-rights complaints filed against him during his time on the force, while Cordova has been hit with two complaints.

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