New York City Muslim Threatens to Kill Cop, Vows Support for the Islamic State
After the January shooting of a Philadelphia police officer at point blank range, New York City police took seriously a tip about an ex-con on parole, who allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and threatened to kill a cop.
While the entire NYPD force was put on alert, the suspect, Marcus Shelton, 36, surrendered to a parole officer January 20. Shelton was wanted on two counts of parole violations and it remains undecided as to whether or not he will be charged with making a threat.
Marcus Shelton
The drama began the previous day when the NYPD received an anonymous phone call saying that Shelton intended to shoot a police officer. A similar call (placed from New York) was also received by the Philadelphia Police Department. One of the callers said Shelton had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
Shelton has a history of 20 prior arrests and served time for drug possession and assault. He was in violation of his parole for possession of marijuana as well as for bending a NYC MetroCard to ride free.
In Philadelphia, police officer Jesse Hartnett was shot three times in the arm on Jan. 7 by Edward Archer, gunman who said he had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
When the call came into the NYPD, all police were issued an Officer Safety Alert. “Be mindful that any call, regardless of how insignificant it appears to be, may be a set up,” said the head of NYPD’s largest union, Patrick Lynch at the time.
“We are taking it serious based on what happened in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago,” said Thomas Galati, chief of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau.
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