New York City officer Wenjian Liu, remembered as a kind and diligent cop, was laid to rest on a rainy Sunday at a Brooklyn funeral attended by thousands of police officers, the Los Angeles Times reported from the New York.
Liu, who got married two months ago, was shot and killed with his partner Rafael Ramos on Dec. 20 while sitting in their police vehicle in Brooklyn. Ramos was buried last weekend and is to be joined by his slain partner at the same Queens cemetery.
City officials and family members delivered eulogies, paying tribute to the seven-year veteran cop who called his father every evening to say he was safe.
Liu called everyday "to tell me, 'Dad, I'm coming home today. You can stop worrying now,'" said Wei Tang Liu, the officer's father, the LA Times reported.
"Today is the saddest day of my life," the father said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Ramos and Liu as officers who "cherished our city's most treasured values," the newspaper reported.
Down the block from Brooklyn's Aievoli Funeral home, many officers in a sea of thousands turned their backs as de Blasio spoke on a giant screen projecting the funeral. It was a quiet protest over what they called the mayor's lack of support for the NYPD during mass protests over alleged police brutality in the recent deaths of unarmed black men.
"Let us rededicate ourselves to those great New York traditions of mutual understanding and living in harmony," de Blasio said in an apparent reference to tension with police. "Let us live together to attain peace."
However, the number of officers with their backs turned was less than the amount that did so during Ramos' Dec. 27 funeral. Before Liu's funeral, Police Commissioner William Bratton urged the NYPD not to turn their backs, reminding them that "a hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance," the LA Times reported.
Bratton previously said Liu and Ramos were "assassinated" by Ismaaiyl Brinsely, a 28-year-old man who posted threatening comments against police on social media and went on a shooting rampage. He killed his girlfriend in Baltimore before he ambushed and gunned down Ramos and Liu in their vehicle. Brinsley later committed suicide.
Liu is the first Chinese-American NYPD officer to be killed in the line of duty, according to NBC News.
"Even though he left us early I believe he is still with us," said Pei Xia Chen, Liu's widow. "Wenjian is my hero."
