Devin Spraggins, charged in shooting of Brett Boller, rookie officer from Long Island, pleads not guilty 

A 22-year-old Queens man who allegedly pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot a rookie NYPD officer from Long Island at close range pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges and was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Friday inside a Queens courtroom packed with police officers.

Devin Spraggins, of 93rd Avenue, who was arrested in the Bronx at 9 p.m. Thursday after investigators traced his whereabouts using surveillance video and social media, had shed his clothing, took his braids out and then cut his hair in an effort to evade authorities, a prosecutor said in court.

Authorities said Spraggins shot Officer Brett Boller, 22, of Hauppauge, in the right hip on Wednesday afternoon after a brief foot pursuit and a struggle.

Spraggins is charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder; two counts of first-degree assault; aggravated assault of a police officer; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; menacing a police officer; and second-degree obstruction of governmental administration.

“[Spraggins] attempted to take the life of a uniformed New York City police officer by shooting the officer in broad daylight on a crowded street,” prosecutor Kanella Georgopoulos said, describing it as “a clear attempt of assassination.”

Spraggins was within 2 feet of Boller when he fired, and the bullet penetrated the officer’s femoral artery and shattered his hip, causing a lack of blood flow to his leg, Georgopoulos said. A doctor who treated Boller told prosecutors that Boller “faced a substantial risk of death” without surgical intervention, according to court documents.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Friday that “Boller is recovering from his gunshot injuries at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he underwent surgery and is expected to need at least one other operation.”

Queens Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny ordered Spraggins remanded, despite a plea from defense attorney Francis Gibbons to set “some cash bail.”

“I have zero confidence he would return to court if released,” Gershuny said

After Spraggins was taken into custody Thursday night, he allegedly admitted in a videorecorded police interview that he was the person in the photo who police identified as a suspect in the shooting, Georgopoulos said. But he told investigators he pushed an officer and ran away because he had a gun in his waistband.

“The gun in the waistband just went off,” Georgopoulos said he told detectives.

According to prosecutors, after Boller fell to the ground, Spraggins continued to point the gun at the officer and took a “shooter’s stance” and pointed the weapon in the direction of Boller’s partner, Officer Anthony Rock, before fleeing on foot. Rock, also a rookie, was not injured.

“Less than 30 hours after shooting an NYPD officer, the 22-year-old suspect was tracked down in the Bronx and is now in police custody,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell announced Friday morning.

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig, at a news briefing at 1 Police Plaza in Manhattan, said members of the Regional Task Force “quickly and without incident” took Spraggins into custody at a residence on Bronx Boulevard in the Bronx.

Police recovered a 9 mm handgun at that address, and investigators are working to see if it is a ballistics match for the 9 mm shell casing and magazine recovered at the scene of the shooting, said Essig, who added that Spraggins is “not known to police” and does not have a criminal record. The magazine contained 15 rounds of ammunition.

The incident began when a man who police believe is Spraggins got into a verbal and physical dispute with another man on an MTA bus Wednesday afternoon in Queens.

The bus driver flagged down nearby police officers.

Boller and Rock, who were both wearing body cameras, attempted to question the suspect, but he pushed Rock and fled on foot, authorities said. Both officers chased him. The suspect fired one shot at 3:20 p.m. during a struggle on 161st Street, police said.

“The perpetrator fled into a nearby parking garage where he removed his black jacket, orange sweatshirt and a black mask,” said Essig, who said the suspect was then dressed in a white T-shirt and black pants.

Video surveillance helped police track the suspect to that parking garage, located at 161st Street and Hillside Avenue, where a black Nissan for-hire Lyft car picked up the suspect, authorities said.

The Lyft car dropped the suspect off at 215th Street and 102nd Avenue, where video showed him entering a private residence, authorities said. Investigators were able to use that address to do a “computer workup” on the residents, including their social media accounts, to come up with a “possible match” for the shooter’s identity, Essig said.

Police obtained a court-ordered search warrant for that address and executed the warrant at 7 p.m. The suspect wasn’t at the location, but police “recovered sneakers we believe were worn by the suspect.” In addition, investigators “garnered significant leads” which “quickly led them” to the Bronx Boulevard address where Spraggins was taken into custody, Essig said.

Deputy Chief Michael Kletzel, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Fugitive Enforcement Division, detailed Spraggins' arrest.

“So when we went up to the address, up in the Bronx, the marshal’s task force and my NYPD detectives took charge of the scene,” Kletzel said. “We gave him verbal commands, ordered him out of the house, we removed three people and he came out without any incidents.”

While Spraggins has a Queens address, he also lives at the Bronx location where he allegedly initially fled, as witnesses at the 215th Street home told police he “bounces in, then he bounces out; we see him from time to time,” the chief said. “We know he’s a transient, from what he talks about, he bounces around from here to here. He has some connections up to Poughkeepsie and to Georgia.”

“Complete nonsense,” NYPD union president Pat Lynch said of the suggestion the gun went off accidentally. “He’s living in an upside down world where he doesn’t realize that there’s video on every corner.”

Lynch said officers immediately came to Boller’s aid, applying a tourniquet to save his leg and carried him away, rushing him to the hospital. Lynch said it is too soon to say if Boller will make a full recovery and return to the job.

“The anxiety when you hear ‘police officer shot,’ any police officer shot, and especially a new rookie police officer, someone whose father I’ve worked with for 15 years, knowing his son was out there doing the job and getting shot, I think every police officer feels that rush to get out there and help and do what they can,” Essig said.

“I spoke with Det. Don Boller [the father of the officer who was shot] last night, he and his family were very relieved and grateful,” Essig said at the Friday news briefing.

With Robert Brodsky, Joan Gralla, Anthony M. DeStefano and Gregg Sarra