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Former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly is talking out publicly for the primary time a few Rikers Island inmate’s plot to behead him and bomb police headquarters some 16 years in the past.
But Kelly wasn’t scared, the longest-serving commissioner in NYPD historical past informed The Post in an interview forward of a brand new A&E docu-series detailing how authorities foiled the 2007 scheme.
“We had this man recognized, and he was in jail,” Kelly, 81, stated, recalling David Brown Jr.’s plan to rent a hitman to kill and dismember him.
“I felt comparatively safe,” Kelly, who led the division between 2002 and 2013, stated cooly. “It actually didn’t jolt me that a lot. You in all probability don’t wish to hear that, however that’s just about what it was.”
The chilling plot was finally stopped because of the work of an undercover officer — with Kelly lauding him and different such investigators as unsung heroes.
Brown, a 47-year-old convicted Brooklyn felon, had informed undercover NYPD Det. Chuck Byam that he was enraged by the November 2006 police killing of Sean Bell, who was shot the morning of his wedding ceremony whereas unarmed.
He faulted Kelly over the case — and needed the highest cop beheaded as punishment and NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza bombed, he informed Byam. And he was prepared to pay $165,000 to get the job achieved.
“Well, what I must do is have the police commissioner killed – I would like him murdered,” Brown informed Byam on a clip of the primary episode of “Undercover: Caught on Tape” set to air Thursday.
“I simply can’t take it now not,” Brown continued within the recording, in response to the clip shared with The Post.
“Every time one thing occurs, how the police commissioner backs the police up. That form of like received me annoyed to the purpose the place I would like him murdered.”
Byam, now a retired 25-year NYPD veteran who was interviewed for the sequence, stated: “This man has received some balls.”
“Not that he desires to kill one other drug seller, or a rival. He desires to kill the police commissioner of New York City,” Byam stated. “That’s massive.”
Byam, who’s black, added that regardless that he understood the frustration about black males being killed by the police, it didn’t justify one other homicide.
“I don’t see the way you’re snug with your self desirous to take anyone’s life,” he says within the episode.
Brown’s threats have been totally different than the usual sinister-but-anonymous phonecall, Kelly informed The Post.
“The distinction right here was we knew who this particular person was … We knew he was violent and we knew that he had cash,” Kelly stated. “He had a home that was price not less than $400,000, so it was totally different than the opposite threats. That’s after we determined to make use of the undercover.”
Byam had a pair of recorders in his pockets for the in-person assembly at Rikers Island on Feb. 23, 2007, the place the 2 would prepare the hit.
Brown informed Byam he wanted Kelly killed instantly: “I would like his head chopped off,” he was heard saying, in response to the documentary.
“I want the folks to really feel my wrath and my rage,” Brown continued. “Every second of on daily basis he lives, burns my soul. I take it personally each time he overlooks sure issues that happen.”
Then, Brown requested if Byam might get explosives to take out NYPD HQ.
“I would like that blown up,” he informed Byam, including that it was the “data capital of the world for the entire police division.”
“I wish to really feel like a terrorist,” Brown stated. “I would like them to really feel like I’m a mom f—ing terrorist, ya know?”
Despite the legal’s phrases, Byam concluded that the post-9/11 plot had nothing to do with precise terrorists abroad. It was only one man with a critical vendetta.
The two reached an settlement on the fee, shook palms, then left, the documentary stated.
That was all authorities wanted. Brown was arrested and charged with two counts of solicitation, finally receiving an extra six years behind bars.
“I made a distinction in unusual, on a regular basis New Yorkers’ – I made a distinction of their lives,” Byam stated. “Although they’ll by no means know I used to be the one chargeable for it, I nonetheless be ok with the distinction I’ve made in New York City.”
People did discover, although. Then-President Barack Obama despatched the detective a congratulatory letter, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer despatched him a flag that had flown over the nation’s Capitol in his honor, Byam informed The Post.
“I felt very honored,” he stated in an interview final week. “The proven fact that I used to be nonetheless alive after I received the flag — that was undoubtedly a honor for me, a touching second.”
Kelly was reportedly by no means in any direct hazard. Brown, who had been convicted of 30 crimes, was mentally in poor health and wheelchair sure.
Still, Kelly informed The Post that he was “definitely glad [Byam] was there.”
“He did an excellent job,” Kelly stated. “You know, you don’t take into consideration these issues within the regular course of enterprise … however if you find yourself confronted with one thing with all of these particulars, the specificity of the menace, then it provides you trigger for concern.”
He additionally lauded undercover cops as unsung heroes who work within the darkness with few rewards.
“[Byam] is form of emblematic of the work that the undercover cops do on daily basis,” Kelly stated.
“They are defending all of us by actually placing their lives on the road.”
