NEW YORK (
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) - An NYPD officer has been taken off life support two days after being shot in the head while sitting in an unmarked patrol car in Queens over the weekend, sources tell NBC 4 New York.
Officer Brian Moore, 25, was put in a medically induced coma after the shooting in Queens Village Saturday evening and had undergone surgeries for what court papers described as "severe injuries to his skull and brain." He was pulled off life support Monday afternoon.
Demetrius Blackwell of Queens was arrested at his home about 90 minutes after the shooting and is facing multiple charges including attempted murder. He didn't enter a plea on that charge Sunday and is being held without bail.
Prosecutors have called the shooting a "cold-blooded attempt at an assassination of New York's finest."
McCormack said Moore and patrol partner Erik Jansen -- both in plainclothes in an unmarked police car -- approached a man later identified as Blackwell on a Queens street after seeing him tugging at his waistband around 6:15 p.m. Saturday and asked him "What are you carrying?"
The officers ordered Blackwell to stop and exchanged words with him. That's when Blackwell allegedly turned, the prosecutor said, and "in a vicious manner started to fire" -- at least two shots. One bullet hit Moore in the head; Jansen wasn't hit and radioed for help.
McCormack said that Blackwell told a detective that he is known in the area as a "hellraiser on the street." He was arrested in his home after a search, but officers were unable to find the weapon allegedly used in the shooting.
Blackwell's court-appointed lawyer, David Bart, said his client denied the charges, which also include assault and weapons offenses.
Moore is a member of a "police family," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said. His father and uncle are retired officers. He lives on Long Island and joined the NYPD in 2010.
The shooting comes less than six months after two NYPD officers were shot and killed in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.