A Stuyvesant Heights man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting an NYPD officer who was responding to a domestic violence call in Weeksville on Christmas Eve in 2020.
The defendant, 23-year-old William Moses, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder on Sept. 7, 2023 and was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan. 31 by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Moses had been arguing with his then-girlfriend over the phone throughout the afternoon and evening of Dec. 24, 2020. The woman’s mother decided to call police after Moses threatened to come over to the woman’s house on Bergen Street with a firearm.
In response to the 911 call, six uniformed officers from the 77th Precinct arrived at the address and proceeded to interview the woman outside of her building at around 9:15 p.m. Not long after, Moses showed up and fired two shots in the direction of his then-partner.
The first shot missed while the second bullet struck one of the officers, Connor Boalick, then 27, in the back. The bullet lodged in a bulletproof vest that he was wearing on duty, never penetrating his skin.
Other officers at the scene opened fire on Moses at least seven times, but none of the shots struck him or anyone else, according to reports. Following a brief foot pursuit, police caught him two blocks away and located his 9-millimeter pistol, which he had tossed.
Officer Boalick was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was treated for bruising and abrasions to his back. He was released the following day.
“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,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement on Wednesday. “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.”
Over the last two years domestic violence incidents have skyrocketed in NYC, with a recent report indicating that the number of people killed in incidents of domestic violence increased by 29.2% in the one-year period between 2021 and 2022.
The study carried out by the Urban Resource Institute found that Brooklyn was the worst borough for domestic violence, with intimate partner homicides escalating by 225% during the same period.
Most recently in Kings County, two officers were shot while responding to a domestic violence incident in Crown Heights on Jan. 16. One officer suffered a gunshot wound to the left hand while another cop was struck in the left thigh, both are expected to make a full recovery.
