Gunman Who Shot NYPD Cop from Garden City Park Sentenced

A couple of weeks ago it had taken jurors less than three hours to find Luis Ortiz guilty of murder and of shooting NYPD Officer Kevin Brennan of Garden City Park in the head.

Now Ortiz will spend somewhere between 40 years and the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced on Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

On Jan. 31, 2012, Brennan and two other officers in plain clothes had responded to calls of shots being fired at the Bushwich Houses public housing project in Brooklyn, encountering three men – one of whom was 21-year old Luis Ortiz – running from the scene. Brennan followed Ortiz into an apartment building but the other officers had difficulty getting a door open that had closed behind him and found Brennan on the hallway floor when they entered.

Brennan was released from the hospital several weeks after being shot and has since returned to duty. He recently received the NYPD Combat Cross.