NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Queens man was sentenced to 39 years to life in prison on Monday for the shooting of an NYPD officer in 2023 that left the cop with a severed femoral artery and shattered hip.
Devin Spraggins, 24, was sentenced in Queens Criminal Court by Judge Kenneth Holder to the maximum sentence, 39 years to life in prison, after the justice said he did not have faith in the parole board.
On the afternoon of April 5, 2023, Spraggins was aboard an MTA bus traveling on Jamaica Avenue and approached 161st Street when he punched a fellow rider. The driver flagged down Officer Anthony Rock for help, who retrieved his partner, Officer Brett Boller.
Boller and Rock, rookie officers that had been on the job for three months, were patrolling the Jamaica business district. They approached the door to the bus and attempted to talk to Spraggins, who prosecutors said pushed past Boller and ran off on foot.
The officers pursued Spraggins on foot, and he turned back at them while holding a gun before continuing to flee, dropping a loaded magazine onto Jamaica Avenue as he ran.
When Boller closed the distance, Spraggins turned and shot him at point-blank range, piercing Boller’s femoral artery and vein with the bullet and shattering his hip. He tried to shoot again at Boller, but there were no bullets left, as he dropped the magazine during the foot pursuit.
“Officer [is] on the ground, screaming and yelling in pain, and the defendant chose to stand there, take a stance and shoot again without knowing that his magazine had fallen out,” District Attorney Melinda Katz said.”
Soon after, Spraggins racked the slide of his gun and took a shooter’s stance at Rock before running into a parking garage where security cameras captured him taking off his black jacket and sweatshirt before running off in a white T-shirt.
“You effectively tried to execute him. Unbelievable,” Holder said during Monday’s sentencing. “So the question is, what had Police Officer Boller done that day that was so terrible that on April 5, 2023, he should die for it?”
The subsequent investigation led police to locate a shell casing near the shooting scene and a magazine loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition where Spraggins was seen running from police.
Security camera video footage showed Spraggins get into a black Nissan Lyft he hired at 161st Street and Hillside Avenue that took him to a residence on 215th Street, and a search warrant executed the next day led investigators to an address in the Bronx, where Spraggins was arrested.
Spraggins was convicted by a jury last month of attempted murder, assault, aggravated assault of a police officer and assault of a police officer pertaining to Boller, and of attempted assault and menacing a police officer in regards to Rock.
He was acquitted of attempted murder pertaining to Rock, but was also convicted of weapon charges, tampering with physical evidence and another assault charge, prosecutors said.
Boller, then-22, underwent surgery at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Rock was not injured.
"You know, myself, my family, my extended family, our friends, we’ll never forget, my son was seriously seriously injured and he’s still recovering to this day,” Boller’s father, NYPD Inspector Donald Boller, said Monday.
The traumatic incident led Rock to leave the police force, while Boller has recently returned to restricted duty. He has been promoted to detective.
“He’s battling injuries right now, step by step. He’s going to make his way back,” Police Benevolence Association President Patrick Hendry said.