Mar 6, 2007 7:59 am US/Eastern
Police: Inmate Plotted To Behead NYPD Commissioner
Tapes Record Inmate Saying, "I Want His Head Chopped Off."
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A 47-year-old Rikers Island inmate has been charged with plotting to have someone behead NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly while someone else detonates a bomb at One Police Plaza.
Authorities say David Brown, who is behind bars for plotting to have his wife murdered, offered to pay $15,000 for Kelly's beheading and another $50,000 for the bombing.
The plot surfaced when Brown began asking around the prison for a hitman, investigators say. That's when undercover officers contacted him twice by phone and even met with him once in person in the prison.
Brown's former neighbors call the inmate a "very peculiar person" when he lived in his Crown Heights apartment with his wife and child, before going to prison in 2001.
Commissioner Kelly declined to comment as did Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose spokesman told CBS 2 during the Jackie Robinson Awards dinner in midtown that the mayor doesn't comment on security matters.
Investigators say Brown appeared to be angry over the shooting of Sean Bell, who was shot by police outside a Queens club in November on the day of his wedding. Police allegedly fired 50 shots in the melee, which left two of Bell's friends seriously injured. Two of the officers in the shooting were in court Monday testifying to a grand jury.
Brown allegedly told an officer posing as a hitman that he blamed Kelly for not prosecuting the officers in the Bell case. A transcript of the police tapes quotes Brown as saying "that kind of got me frustrated to the point where I want him murdered."
The NYPD says they have recordings of Brown specifically saying, "I want his head chopped off."
Security expert Bill Daly, who knows Kelly well, told CBS 2 that Kelly's position forces him to face plenty of negative reaction from those who disagree with him. "Ray Kelly, by taking a strong position both against criminals and as well as against terrorists, he's unfortunately going to be in the cross-hairs of people who are looking to perhaps show that they can make an impact," Daly said.
Police said Brown was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
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