Sat Dec 27, 2014 2:23am IST
(Adds mourners' quotes, details from outside church, backgrounddetails, JetBlue offering free flights to law enforcement)
By Jonathan Allen and Sebastien Malo
NEW YORK Dec 26 (Reuters) - Police officers in dressuniform and other mourners lined up quietly for two blocks at aNew York City church to pay their respects to one of twoofficers shot by a man who said he was avenging killings ofunarmed black men by police.
Targeted for their uniform, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liuwere slain last Saturday afternoon while sitting in their patrolcar in Brooklyn in what is only the seventh instance of policepartners being killed together in the city in more than 40years.
Draped in the New York Police Department's green, white andblue flag, Ramos's coffin was carried into the church heregularly attended in his suburban Queens neighborhood by policeofficers as colleagues from his Brooklyn station house stoodsaluting.
"He was this beam of light," said Elizabeth Vidal, who hadknown Ramos for more than a decade as a fellow congregant andusher at Christ Tabernacle Church as she waited to go into thewake, her voice cracking with sadness.
Ramos, 40, had been on the force for two years and wasraising two teenage sons with his wife, Maritza.
His funeral on Saturday will come at the end of a week inwhich blame swirled and heated rhetoric flashed across a citythat had largely escaped some of the more violent outbursts seenin six months of nationwide protests against police use offorce.
In extraordinary scenes at the hospital where Liu and Ramoswere taken on Saturday, police union leaders, angered by MayorBill de Blasio's qualified support of the protesters, said themayor had "blood on his hands". As the mayor arrived at thehospital, some officers turned their backs to him in a pointeddisplay of disrespect.
A visibly angered de Blasio later snapped at somejournalists at a press conference, chastising them for what hecalled "divisive" coverage, while urging activists to haltdemonstrations until after the police funerals. In the followingdays, however, small groups of protesters continued to take tothe streets chanting "How do you spell murderer? NYPD" and otheranti-police chants.
The mayor has said he hopes the funerals will help unite adivided city. Some people attending the wake saw little reasonto refrain from criticism.
Marta Mares, who said she only learned Ramos was a neighborafter his death, arrived with her daughter two hours before thechurch doors were due to open.
"We want to support NYPD officers because now we can seewhat danger they are in, especially under Mayor de Blasio," shesaid.
Thousands of police officers from departments around thecountry were expected to join U.S. Vice President Joe Biden andcity and state officials for Ramos's funeral service at thechurch on Saturday. Nearly 700 officers had taken up an offerJetBlue Airways Corp to fly two members of a lawenforcement agency to New York for free to attend, an airlinespokeswoman said.
Police had yet to announce details for the funeral of Liu,32, while federal officials helped some of his relatives inChina travel to the United States.
The execution-style killing was so swift, according to thecity's police commissioner, that the officers may never haveseen their assailant, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who soon after shothimself and died in a nearby subway station.
The two officers had been reassigned from another precinctfollowing complaints about violent crime from residents at ahousing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
Brinsley, who was black, wrote online before traveling fromMaryland to New York for the attack that he wanted to kill acouple of police officers to avenge the deaths of Eric Garnerand Michael Brown, unarmed black men killed by white policemenin New York and Missouri.
The deaths of Garner and Brown and the decision not toprosecute the officers responsible ignited protests across thecountry, renewing a debate about race in America that has drawnin U.S. President Barack Obama.
The killing of Ramos and Liu further frayed bonds betweenmany New York police officers and de Blasio as deals with thegravest crisis of his year-old mayoral administration.
Protest leaders expressed horror at the killings, sayingthey could not be held responsible for the actions of a mandescribed by city officials as emotionally troubled. Brinsleyshot and wounded his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore before travelingto Brooklyn.
Relatives of Garner joined civil rights activist the Rev. AlSharpton on Christmas Day to say prayers for both Ramos and Liu. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Howard Goller andChristian Plumb)
(Adds mourners' quotes, details from outside church, backgrounddetails, JetBlue offering free flights to law enforcement)
By Jonathan Allen and Sebastien Malo
NEW YORK Dec 26 (Reuters) - Police officers in dressuniform and other mourners lined up quietly for two blocks at aNew York City church to pay their respects to one of twoofficers shot by a man who said he was avenging killings ofunarmed black men by police.
Targeted for their uniform, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liuwere slain last Saturday afternoon while sitting in their patrolcar in Brooklyn in what is only the seventh instance of policepartners being killed together in the city in more than 40years.
Draped in the New York Police Department's green, white andblue flag, Ramos's coffin was carried into the church heregularly attended in his suburban Queens neighborhood by policeofficers as colleagues from his Brooklyn station house stoodsaluting.
"He was this beam of light," said Elizabeth Vidal, who hadknown Ramos for more than a decade as a fellow congregant andusher at Christ Tabernacle Church as she waited to go into thewake, her voice cracking with sadness.
Ramos, 40, had been on the force for two years and wasraising two teenage sons with his wife, Maritza.
His funeral on Saturday will come at the end of a week inwhich blame swirled and heated rhetoric flashed across a citythat had largely escaped some of the more violent outbursts seenin six months of nationwide protests against police use offorce.
In extraordinary scenes at the hospital where Liu and Ramoswere taken on Saturday, police union leaders, angered by MayorBill de Blasio's qualified support of the protesters, said themayor had "blood on his hands". As the mayor arrived at thehospital, some officers turned their backs to him in a pointeddisplay of disrespect.
A visibly angered de Blasio later snapped at somejournalists at a press conference, chastising them for what hecalled "divisive" coverage, while urging activists to haltdemonstrations until after the police funerals. In the followingdays, however, small groups of protesters continued to take tothe streets chanting "How do you spell murderer? NYPD" and otheranti-police chants.
The mayor has said he hopes the funerals will help unite adivided city. Some people attending the wake saw little reasonto refrain from criticism.
Marta Mares, who said she only learned Ramos was a neighborafter his death, arrived with her daughter two hours before thechurch doors were due to open.
"We want to support NYPD officers because now we can seewhat danger they are in, especially under Mayor de Blasio," shesaid.
Thousands of police officers from departments around thecountry were expected to join U.S. Vice President Joe Biden andcity and state officials for Ramos's funeral service at thechurch on Saturday. Nearly 700 officers had taken up an offerJetBlue Airways Corp to fly two members of a lawenforcement agency to New York for free to attend, an airlinespokeswoman said.
Police had yet to announce details for the funeral of Liu,32, while federal officials helped some of his relatives inChina travel to the United States.
The execution-style killing was so swift, according to thecity's police commissioner, that the officers may never haveseen their assailant, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who soon after shothimself and died in a nearby subway station.
The two officers had been reassigned from another precinctfollowing complaints about violent crime from residents at ahousing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
Brinsley, who was black, wrote online before traveling fromMaryland to New York for the attack that he wanted to kill acouple of police officers to avenge the deaths of Eric Garnerand Michael Brown, unarmed black men killed by white policemenin New York and Missouri.
The deaths of Garner and Brown and the decision not toprosecute the officers responsible ignited protests across thecountry, renewing a debate about race in America that has drawnin U.S. President Barack Obama.
The killing of Ramos and Liu further frayed bonds betweenmany New York police officers and de Blasio as deals with thegravest crisis of his year-old mayoral administration.
Protest leaders expressed horror at the killings, sayingthey could not be held responsible for the actions of a mandescribed by city officials as emotionally troubled. Brinsleyshot and wounded his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore before travelingto Brooklyn.
Relatives of Garner joined civil rights activist the Rev. AlSharpton on Christmas Day to say prayers for both Ramos and Liu. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Howard Goller andChristian Plumb)
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