New York cop killer has criminal past in metro Atlanta

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned there’s a metro Atlanta connection to the murder of two New York police officers.

Authorities in New York released new video of the gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley.

The video shows the suspect with a bag over his hand most likely to hide his weapon. City leaders also said they met with the two officers' families Monday as they plan funerals.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant spent the day digging through court documents to learn more about the suspect's past in metro Atlanta.

Diamant spoke with Ismaaiyl Brinsley's former attorney.

Since learning about Brinsley's connection to metro Atlanta, he spent a lot of time looking for documents.  While he committed most of his local crimes in Fulton County, he committed his most serious ones in Cobb.

"We have to understand an attack on them was an attack on all of us," New York City Mayor Bill Deblasio.

In June 2013, he served 30 days in the Cobb County jail for a probation violation after Atlanta police picked him up during a disturbance outside a midtown bar.

Brinsley had been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011, after pleading guilty to showing up to an apartment complex on Powers Ferry Road in Marietta, shooting a resident's car with a stolen handgun, and then running away with the gun when police arrived.

But the judge let Brinsley serve his sentence on probation if he completed a Georgia Department of Corrections boot camp.  Diamant confirmed Brinsley did the boot camp, but never checked in with his probation officer.

The Union City address Brinsley gave the court belonged to his sister. No one came to the door when a Channel 2 Action News crew showed up there.

Brinsley's lawyer on the case was not at his Marietta office when Diamant showed up Monday, but told Diamant by phone "the only thing that stands out to me is that he had an unusual name, and he didn't mean to hurt anybody at the apartment complex."

In all, Diamant’s research confirms Brinsley had been arrested at least 15 times between 2004 and 2013 in Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties. Plus, investigators in New York say they've traced the weapon Brinsley used to shoot those officers back to Georgia.

WSBTV