Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the 28-year-old gunman who shot to death two NYPD police officers on Saturday while they were in their squad car, had a long criminal record and undiagnosed mental problems that even his mother was afraid of him.

According to Robert Boyce, NYC chief of detectives, Brinsley had 15 arrest records in Georgia and four in Ohio for different crimes. It turned out that before he shot point blank officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the head, he also gunned earlier on the same day his girlfriend, 29-year-old Shaneka Nicole Thompson.

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She was shot in the abdomen and is in critical but stable condition, reports Fox News. The shooting happened in an apartment complex in Owing Mills, Baltimore County, Maryland.

After shooting Thompson, Brinsley boarded a Bolt Bus headed for New York City that took the I-95 route, and he alighted in Manhattan.

Before he shot the two cops, Brinsley posted on his Instagram account a hint about the crime he was about to commit.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today," the cryptic message read. "They take 1 of us, let's take 2 of theirs."

With two men whom Brinsley, a police hater, approached prior to the incident, he was more direct. After asking the two what gang they belong to, he asked them to follow him on Instagram and told them, "Watch what I'm going to do."

Boyce said that authorities had spoken to the two men, although they are likely not connected to the shooting.

Although he had brushes with the law, Brinsley had no gang affiliation, Boyce said, so the police is investigating if he took part in any of the protests over the deaths of unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner in the hands of white cops, or he used the growing anti-police sentiment as his excuse to go on a killing rampage before turning the gun on himself.

Boyce added that the silver handgun that Brinsley used was purchased at a pawnshop in Georgia in 1996. Police are still investigating how the crazed gunman got hold of it.

TagsNYPD cops gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, cop killer