New York police officers shot dead

The two officers were sitting inside their patrol car in front of an apartment building in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon when a single gunman walked up to the car and began firing.

The officers were rushed to the Woodhull Medical Center where officials say they were both pronounced dead.

New York Police Department Deputy Chief Kim Royster said it appeared the shots struck both men in the upper body.

Gunman fled

After the shooting the gunman fled to a nearby subway platform where he was found with what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival, police officials said. A silver handgun was recovered at the scene.

A police spokesman identified the shooter as a 28-year-old man.

Police have not commented on the motive for the Brooklyn shootings. They did say the officers were not engaging the gunman in any way when they were shot.

Police shootings

The killings come at a time when the police in New York and in other US cities have been criticized for their tactics in making arrests, which have led to the deaths of a number of unarmed individuals. They include Eric Garner, a black man who was stopped by police for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. An amateur video taken of the incident shows Garner in a choke hold, gasping "I can't breathe."

Last month a police officer fatally shot an unarmed 28-year-old black man in the stairwell of a Brooklyn apartment building.

In Ohio, a 12-year-old black boy was gunned down by police while he was handling a toy pistol in a playground.

A grand jury earlier this month decided not to indict the officer involved in Garner's death. Their decision closely followed a Missouri grand jury decision not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old unarmed black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. The shootings and the grand jury decisions led to protests by rights groups over the treatment of African Americans by police.

The last shooting death of a New York police officer was in December 2011, when 22-year veteran Peter Figoski responded to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment.

jm/jr (AP, Reuters)