Indian-origin teen held for plotting murder of New York cops

An Indian-origin teen has been charged with illegally purchasing a gun with a fake ID and allegedly plotting the murder of New York police officers, authorities have said.

Ranbir Singh Shergill, 18, was arrested this weekend and has been ordered held.

An undated note was found on Shergill’s phone that appeared to be a plan to kill cops, a report in the New York Daily News said.

The incident within days of Indian-origin doctoral student Mainak Sarkar shooting dead his 39-year-old professor at UCLA and estranged wife Ashley Has before turning the gun on himself.

Shergill allegedly also threatened to kill members of his family last month with a gun he kept at the family's Queens neighbourhood home.

FBI special agent Nicholas Olivero said in the report that a box containing a handgun, seven magazines, and 118 rounds of ammunition was found in Shergill’s bedroom.

Shergill admitted he had travelled to Ohio to buy the gun for $500 from a private owner, showed the seller a fake ID he had obtained on the internet and bought the ammunition in Pennsylvania.

According to a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, the phone note read, "Do it during a snowstorm, use the snow to mask your presence. Go from dunkin donuts on van wyck (Expressway) after shooting and killing officers... And one will be male other female. Then try to kill other NYPD (New York police department) officers change clothes and go back to the crime scene or make false call."