NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for shooting an NYPD officer who was responding to his girlfriend's house after he threatened to shoot at her, prosecutors said.
The evidence shows that William Moss, 23, of Stuyvesant Heights, was in an argument over the phone with his girlfriend on Dec. 24, 2020. At one point, the defendant threatened to come to the woman's Crown Heights home and shoot at her window, the district attorney's office said.
The woman's mother called the police, and six officers responded to her Bergen Street address at about 9:05 p.m.
While police interviewed the girlfriend outside of her building, Moss arrived and fired off two shots at her.
The first shot missed, but the second lodged in the back of officer Connor Boalick's bulletproof vest.
Two officers pursued Moss when he ran off on foot. They shot at him and missed, but caught up with him two blocks away and got him into custody.
Police also recovered a nine-millimeter pistol from where the defendant had thrown it, officials said.
Boalick, then 27, was treated for bruising and abrasions to his back at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County.
"It's a miracle Officer Boalick wasn't more seriously injured or killed when he was shot by this defendant while answering a domestic violence call," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "Today's lengthy prison sentence holds the defendant accountable for his violent actions while underscoring the dangers our police officers face every day to keep us all safe."
Moss pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder on Sept. 7, 2023, and was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.
