[Breaking news published 11:42 a.m. ET]
Some police officers outside the funeral of New York Police Officer Wenjian Liu turned their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke, despite a call from police Commissioner William Bratton that there be no acts of disrespect.
Bratton addressed mourners inside Brooklyn’s Aievoli Funeral Home. “Liu believed in the possibility,” Bratton said. He believed that by being a cop, he could help make the world and his city safer, the commissioner said.
Liu was an officer for seven years. “For seven years, he sought out” those who were suffering and tried to ease that.
Bratton said: Liu “believed in the possibility…of a city free of fear.”
Liu is the type of “officer that we want…and the type that we have,” the commissioner continued. His dedication was hardly unique though, the commissioner said. It is reflected in every man and woman who works for the New York Police Department.
“It’s what we do,” Bratton said.
[Breaking news published 11:30 a.m. ET]
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said of slain NYPD officer Wenjian Liu: “He embodied our city’s most cherished values.”
Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were shot to death as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn on December 20.
“(In their deaths we lost) the very best of us. Everything that we as New Yorkers … we lost two individuals who were showing us the way.”
[Breaking news published 11:26 a.m. ET]
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio talked about slain New York Police Officer Wenjian Liu’s love of family. He rarely took time off but when he did, Liu went fishing. And in those wonderful moments when he caught a big fish, he would share it with his parents and his wife.
He was a “brave and skilled police officer but he was also a kind man, a kind officer, someone who gave of himself,” the mayor said. “He wanted to help others in everything he did.”
He had always dreamed of being a police officer.
[Breaking news published at 11:21 a.m. ET]
FBI director James Comey was the first to address mourners at the funeral of New York Police Officer Wenjian Liu in New York. Police become officers because “they want to do good … they want to make ordinary life” better. They do their jobs despite the danger to them. Liu was gunned down on December 20, apparently simply because he was a police officer.
Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Liu as “a good man. … He walked a path of courage, path of sacrifice, a path of kindness.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is unable to attend the funeral because of his father’s death.
[Original story published at 11:16 a.m. ET]
Twenty years ago, Wenjian Liu’s parents came to the United States with their son and a hope to fulfill American dream.
Minutes before the funeral for New York police officer Wenjian Liu began in Brooklyn, a sea of hundreds of uniformed officers crowded the street. Thousands of people are expected to attend.
They watched their child grow into an altruistic young man who became an officer with the New York Police Department — a job that Liu had dreamed of.
On December 20, a gunman cut that dream short. But on Sunday, a sea of police officers from across the country will make sure Liu won’t be forgotten.
Mourners wearing an array of different badges are gathering for Liu’s funeral at 11 a.m. at Brooklyn’s Aievoli Funeral Home.
Last weekend, Liu’s partner, Rafael Ramos, was laid to rest after both officers were shot in their squad car — apparently just because they were cops.
At Ramos’ funeral, police Commissioner William Bratton promoted both men to the rank of detective, first grade.
Diversity and unity
The ceremonial burning of paper money and the melodic sounds of Buddhist chants marked Liu’s wake Saturday.
Under a mix of rain and snow, throngs of uniformed police officers and firefighters gathered in a sign of the diversity and unity.
Liu was 12 when his parents emigrated with him in 1994 from Canton, China. His police partner, Ramos, a New York native of Puerto Rican descent, was remembered last week with a massive outpouring at a Protestant church in Queens.
With the city and nation divided over the treatment of minorities by police, the lives of the two fallen officers more closely reflected the city’s diversity.
“This was his dream, to become an NYPD officer,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said outside Liu’s wake Saturday. “In some ways, it’s the ultimate assimilation into America, into New York, to become a police officer. And obviously he was so proud, and he was so proud for his whole family.”
From protests to reverence
The police commissioner made one request to officers attending Liu’s funeral: Don’t carry out an “act of disrespect” against anyone, Bratton said in a memo obtained by CNN.
The message was directed at a large group of officers who attended Ramos’ funeral last week and turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he gave his eulogy.
Some officers have accused the mayor of encouraging anti-police fervor due to his support of protests against police brutality. Tens of thousands had taken to the streets after the death of African-American Eric Garner during an encounter with white NYPD officers in July.
Pat Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, has taken aim at de Blasio, even saying the mayor’s office was stained with the officers’ blood.
But for Sunday’s funeral, Bratton urged officers to be reverent.
“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” Bratton said. He said the earlier display put all NYPD officers in a bad light.
“It stole the valor, honor and attention that rightfully belonged to the memory of detective Rafael Ramos’s life and sacrifice,” his memo read.
But he commiserated with the sentiments of many officers.
“As a cop, one who lived and worked through the assassination threats of the 1970s, I understand that emotions are high,” he said.
On Saturday, there was no protest by the police against the mayor. Several officers saluted de Blasio when he arrived for Liu’s wake.
The ambush
Ramos and Liu were sitting in their squad car in Brooklyn when Ismaaiyl Brinsley ambushed them with a gun on December 20. Brinsley then shot himself to death in a nearby subway station.
The assailant had a lengthy rap sheet that included gun crimes. He had tweeted messages that he would kill police officers in the wake of the deaths of Garner and of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Little did he know the accomplishments and service of the two men he killed.
Wenjian Liu
Liu’s family came to the United States in search of a better life.
He majored in accounting in college, but he opted for a different path, joining the NYPD in 2007. He was proud to serve as an officer, his family said, using his Chinese-language skills whenever they were needed.
He got married in September and was looking forward to starting his own family.
Liu’s family described him as selfless in an interview given to the New York Daily News.
Holding back tears, his father said that as a young officer, Liu once bought a meal for someone he pulled over and then guided him home, he told the Daily News.
Liu’s widow gave a brief statement on the day of Ramos’ funeral, thanking members of the community for their support and sending condolences to the Ramos family.
“This is a difficult time for both of our families,” Pei Xia Chen said, “but we will stand together and get through this together.”
Rafael Ramos
Ramos saw his work as a ministry and was posthumously appointed honorary NYPD chaplain.
He was just hours away from becoming a lay chaplain and graduating from a community-crisis chaplaincy program before his violent death.
He left behind a wife, Maritza, and two sons, Justin and Jaden.
Vice President Joe Biden, Cuomo, de Blasio and Bratton delivered eulogies at his funeral.
More than 25,000 police officers from across the country and Canada attended. Officers formed long chains holding hands in prayer.