A New York City police officer was shot in the head while sitting in a command vehicle shortly after midnight on Wednesday, in what authorities say was likely an ambush.

Twelve-year force veteran Miosotis Familia, 48, was sitting with her partner in the vehicle — a temporary police headquarters vehicle — in the Bronx when suspect Alexander Bonds approached the vehicle and shot Familia through the window.

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“She was on duty, serving this city, protecting people, doing what she believed in and doing the job she loved,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Wednesday morning. “After this sudden and shocking attack, her fellow officers came to her aid immediately.” Famila was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital but succumbed to her wounds.

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Officials and law enforcement veterans suggested that anti-police animus was likely the motivation behind the attack.

“It is obvious this was an unprovoked attack on police officers,” said NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill.

“It was an attempted cop assassination,” an unidentified law enforcement source told the New York Post.

The New York Daily News reported that a police source said Bonds’ criminal record included an assault on a police officer with brass knuckles.

“Let’s be clear. This was nothing less than an assassination of a police officer. Our understanding is she was filling out her memo book and he walked out and fired one round,” the police source told the New York Daily News. The source also told the Daily News that Bonds recently spoke critically of law enforcement on an unspecified social media site.

Following the shooting, Familia’s partner immediately called for backup. Two officers, Sgt. Keith Bryan and Officer Joseph Ayala, gave chase to Bonds and shot him dead a block from the scene.

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The shooting is the latest in a string of ambush-style assassinations of police officers to have occurred since the the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the launch of the progressives’ all-out propaganda war against law enforcement in America.

“There is so much anti-police sentiment circulating the country, and it has been the last few years,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said on Fox News Wednesday morning. “It’s incredible. Just incredible. People out there who not only condone it but celebrate it. And that is — I don’t understand that.”

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In 2016, 21 of the 64 officers who were killed in the line of duty nationwide — nearly a third — were murdered in ambush attacks. The statistic represents a 250 percent rise in ambush fatalities from 2015, NBC reported in December 2016.

“While law enforcement officers willingly accept the inherent dangers that come along with the ultimate responsibility of protecting our nation, a new dimension of risk is added when they must also be concerned that they will be targeted for simply being in uniform,” the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association said in an official statement released November of last year.

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“It is hazardous and demoralizing to the brave men and women who are dedicated to protecting the American public,” the statement continued.

“A negative perception of law enforcement that has been perpetuated by some has no doubt contributed to these attacks,” the statement read. “It only serves to embolden a fringe ‎that gains support from this kind of rhetoric and empowers them to act on it.” (go to page 2 to continue reading)[lz_pagination]