NEW YORK — The robbery in Queens that led to the death of a police detective last week was a two-man operation — synchronized, preplanned and the duo’s second in a week, according to police.

One man was a lookout Tuesday who hovered outside the Richmond Hill cellphone store, scanning for trouble.

The other was the muscle. He carried a realistic-looking toy gun and a duffel bag as he forced employees to open a cash register and two safes at the back of the T-Mobile store on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 120th Street, according to a criminal complaint filed Sunday.

If everything went to plan, the pair had discussed in text messages how they intended to divvy up the spoils.

It did not go according to plan.

Within minutes, a 42-year-old detective, Brian Simonsen, was shot dead. His boss, Sgt. Matthew Gorman, was shot in the leg in a police fusillade that also wounded the suspect who had entered the store, Christopher Ransom. Officers responding to the scene Tuesday evening fired 42 times in 11 seconds, striking Ransom eight times.

Simonsen, a 19-year veteran of the department, was the city’s first police officer to be killed in the line of duty since July 2017. His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday on Long Island.

Ransom’s alleged accomplice, Jagger Freeman, ran off after hearing the gunfire, the complaint stated.

Four days earlier, the two had robbed another T-Mobile store in Queens, about 4 1/2 miles away on Linden Boulevard, according to the criminal complaint.

This more complete portrait of the crime that resulted in Simonsen’s death by what police commissioner has said was an “absolutely tragic case of friendly fire” emerged Sunday morning in Queens Criminal Court at Freeman’s arraignment on murder charges.

Freeman, 25, has been charged with numerous criminal counts related to the two robberies, including second-degree murder, robbery, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Ransom, 27, was charged with many of the same crimes when he was arraigned Friday from his bed at a hospital in Queens.

Freeman, of Queens, was taken into custody Saturday at Parsons Boulevard, in a second-floor apartment, following an investigation, according to police. Later Saturday, as Freeman was walked outside the 107th Precinct in Queens in handcuffs, he told reporters, “I didn’t do it.”

Lawyers for Ransom and Freeman could not be immediately reached for comment.

On Tuesday, the two men arrived together outside the T-Mobile store just after 6 p.m., police said. Freeman positioned himself outside the shop.

Masked, and wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt, Ransom, inside the store, brandished the fake gun, and pointed it at the T-Mobile employees, demanding that they empty the register into the duffel bag and give him iPhones, according to a deposition from Detective Vincent Santangelo, of the Queens South homicide squad.

Meanwhile, outside, Freeman “communicated with” Ransom via cellphone, according to Santangelo’s deposition.

Up to that point, the details are similar to the Feb. 8 robbery the pair is now charged with. In that crime, using what appeared to be a long-barreled semi-automatic rifle, Ransom instructed employees to hand over cash and phones, according to Santangelo’s testimony; he filled his duffel bag with 25 cellphones and about $1,000.

But things went badly awry on Feb. 12: Simonsen and Gorman, responding to an emergency call of an armed robbery in progress and dressed in plainclothes, arrived at the store at about 6:12 p.m.

Gorman and two uniformed officers entered the T-Mobile shop, as other uniformed officers arrived outside, to find Ransom brandishing what appeared to them to be a handgun, according to James O’Neill, the police commissioner. Ransom advanced on the officers, and they fired as they retreated to the street, O’Neill has said.

As police arrived, Freeman began to walk away, according to the court records.

When the shots rang out, he ran.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.