Man found guilty of attempted murder in 2023 shooting of NYPD rookie cop: DA

A 24-year-old man was convicted of attempted murder and other crimes in connection to the brazen shooting of a rookie police officer after an altercation in April 2023 in broad daylight in Jamaica, Queens, the local district attorney announced.

Devin Spraggins, 24, was convicted of attempted murder in the first degree, assault in the first degree, aggravated assault of a police officer, assault of a police officer, attempted assault in the first degree and menacing a police officer, as well as two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence and assault in the third degree, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Wednesday.

Spraggins is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2. He faces up to 40 years to life in prison for the attempted murder charge.

The conviction is in connection to a shooting that occurred on April 5, 2023. According to the charges and trial testimony, it was on that day at around 3:20 p.m. when Spraggins was on an MTA bus on Jamaica Avenue when he punched a passenger as the bus approached 160th Street. The bus driver gladded down Officer Anthony Rock, who then also got his partner Officer Brett Roller. The two tried to talk with Spraggins at the front door of the bus, but Spraggins pushed Boller and ran off. It was then that both officers rand after Spraggins.

Boller caught up to Spraggins, when Spraggins turned around and shot him, piercing Boller’s femoral artery and vein in his upper thigh and shattered his hip. Spraggins tried to fire again at Boller but there were no bullets left in the gun because he dropped his magazine while running from police.

Subsequently, Spraggins racked the slide of his gun, took a shooter’s stance and aimed at Rock.

Spraggins then ran into a parking garage, where he was seen on video surveillance footage taking off his black jacket and sweatshirt and leaving in a white T-shirt.

Police found a shell casing near the shooting scene and a magazine loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 161^st Street.

Security camera video footage showed Spraggins at 161^st Street and Hillside Avenue getting into a black Nissan, identified as a for-hire Lyft vehicle that took him to a residence on 215^th Street, the district attorney said.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for the home and recovered sneakers believed to belong to the suspect, NBC New York previously reported. The man was not in the home when they arrived, but NYPD officials say the warrant yielded a trove of evidence that ultimately led them to a Bronx address also apparently linked to him. Spraggins was there, and apprehended.

Spraggins' apprehension came the same evening authorities announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction -- then doubled it to $20,000 the same day.

He wasn't known to the NYPD prior to this case and has no known arrest record, officials said. They described him as a transient who also has some connections in the Poughkeepsie area.

Boller, who was 22 at the time of the shooting, underwent surgery for his gunshot injuries at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Rock, also 22 at the time, was not injured.

“Devin Spraggins attempted to assassinate a New York City police officer in cold blood in April 2023, after he was stopped by cops for fighting with another passenger on an MTA bus," Katz said. "The defendant shot Police Officer Brett Boller at point blank range, and it is only because of extraordinary medical intervention that Officer Boller is alive today and this is not a murder case.”