Neighbor: Ex-girlfriend shot before NYPD ambush was screaming for help, banging on door

TOWSON, Md. — The ex-girlfriend of the man who ambushed two NYPD officers screamed for help after she was shot and said: "I can't die like this, please please help me," according to a neighbor who said she saw the woman and called 911.

Yevette Seay told The Associated Press on Sunday that her neighbor, 29-year-old Shaneka Thompson, banged on her apartment door for help after being shot. Seay said she talked to Thompson through her closed front door and she could see the bloodied woman through the peep hole.

"I told her to hang in there. I was afraid to ask her too many questions because she was hysterical," Seay said.

Police said Thompson's ex-boyfriend, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, shot her in the stomach about 5:45 a.m. Saturday and then fled to New York, where he gunned down two officers in a squad car. Brinsley, who ended up killing himself, had vowed online to put "wings on pigs" after shooting Thompson.

Thompson was in critical condition at a University of Maryland Medical Center. She is expected to survive.

Seay said Thompson moved in a few months ago. The two would exchange hellos but Seay did not know her. Seay said she had heard her neighbors fight before, but the screaming got her out of bed Saturday morning.

"I could hear something going on and it wasn't pleasant. Then I heard some screaming, then she went out onto her balcony and screamed for help," Seay said.

Seay said Thompson wanted her to open up her door, but she didn't know what was going on, so she kept it closed and called 911. She said there was blood all over the carpet in the hallway.

Seay said police arrived in about seven or eight minutes.

Seay's sister had left the apartment to go to work and saw a man running through the parking lot, Seay said. After seeing news reports about the New York shooting and the suspect's photo, Seay's sister figured out it that she had seen Brinsley running.