NYC Man Who Shot Cop During Bus Fight Gets Sentenced

NEW YORK CITY — A 23-year-old man who shot and injured an NYPD officer while he was trying to break up a bus fight in Queens back in 2023 has been sentenced to 39-years-to-life in prison, prosecutors announced.

Devin Spraggins shot and injured Officer Brett Boller while he was trying to break up a fight between the defendant and another passenger on an MTA bus in April 2023, prosecutors said.

Spraggins had been convicted of attempted murder, assault, aggravated assault of a police officer and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, among other charges last month, Patch previously reported.

All of this started because of a seat on a bus. A police officer has spent over a year with surgeries and physical therapy recovering from getting shot, and only by a twist of fate was not killed. Devin Spraggins used an illegal firearm and shot Police Officer Brett Boller. With the officer on the ground, this defendant did not attempt to escape," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. "Instead, he aimed that gun and pulled the trigger again. This would have been a cold-blooded execution, if not for the magazine dropping from the gun as Spraggins ran from the police. A jury has spoken, and this defendant has now been sentenced to prison.”

Officer Boller, who was 22 at the time of the shooting, underwent surgery for his gunshot injuries at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, prosecutors said.