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Photos: NYC Mourns Slain Police Officers With Vigils, Moments Of Silence
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 22, 2014
Modified Dec 22, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 22, 2014
Modified Dec 22, 2014
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The execution-style killing of two Brooklyn police officers on Saturday has left New Yorkers reeling. Yesterday, all over the city, they came together to mourn Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
Flowers were left on the sidewalk on Tompkins Avenue, right by Myrtle Avenue, steps away from where Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were fatally shot while in their car by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who later killed himself. Mourners visited the memorial throughout the day, paying their respects, praying for families and singing. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, joined by the four other borough presidents, said, "
“We cannot allow an attack on the public safety of our city, of any innocent life. In the wake of this tragedy, this is not about one voice; this is about the voice of an entire city crying out for unity. We are asking all New Yorkers to turn this pain into purpose to ensure we send out a very clear and loud message: All lives matter."
(David Torres)
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer added, "Our city is in mourning. My heart goes out to the families of the two police officers killed in an ambush in Brooklyn. Senseless shootings like this remind us that the entire NYPD puts their lives on the line every day they go to work."
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton also visited the growing memorial yesterday.
The slain officers were from the 84th Precinct but assigned to a Critical Response Vehicle, across from the Tompkins Houses in the 79th Precinct. The 84th Precinct hung purple bunting outside, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson visited officers there.
Officers Ramos and Liu
Mourners also visited the homes of the officers. Liu was a recent newlywed, while Ramos was married with two sons. From the NY Times:
Bin Fin Liang, 56, said Officer Liu would drop by his restaurant supply shop on the way home from the Police Academy. Mr. Liang asked him why he wanted to be an officer.
“I know that being a cop is dangerous but I must do it,” Officer Liu replied, his friend said. “If I don’t do it and you don’t do it, then who is going to do it?”...
Dr. Jonathan Chang, who treats Officer Liu’s parents, emerged from the house and said the officer’s widow was in bed, inconsolable. The parents had not eaten yet, he added, and it was already late in the afternoon. The officer’s father irons in a garment factory. “Completely distraught,” Dr. Chang, 55, said in Mandarin. They repeated, over and over, “My son is gone.”...
While residents of [Ramos'] working-class neighborhood described the pride he took in being an officer, they remembered him more as the man who shoveled sidewalks after snowstorms, or who took his two boys to nearby Highland Park to play basketball, always with a smile on his face.
“He was a wonderful man,” said Alexander Justi, 72, who wiped away tears. “He’s good people.”
Some spoke of his love for the Mets. He bought ham-and-cheese sandwiches at the corner deli, made trips to the laundromat and talked to his boys in Spanish about basketball.
In his sermon yesterday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said, "Commissioner Bratton and Chief O’Neill, would you tell your officers that God’s people gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this morning, thundered with prayer with and for them. That we love them very much, we mourn with them, we need them, we respect them and we’re proud of them and we thank them. Will you tell them that?"
Tagged
brooklyn
fatal shooting
ismaaiyl brinsley
nypd
officers killed
rafael ramos
Tompkins Houses
wenjian liu
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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