Police turn backs on NY mayor during wake for fallen NYPD officer

GLENDALE, N.Y. -- Hundreds of officers outside the church where a funeral was held for a policeman killed along with his partner in an ambush shooting turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke during Saturday's service.

The reaction from officers watching Officer Rafael Ramos' funeral on giant TV screens followed comments from police union officials who had said Mayor Bill de Blasio contributed to a climate of mistrust that contributed to the killings of the two officers.

Inside Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, however, mourners gave de Blasio polite applause before and after his speech.

The mayor said hearts citywide were aching after the Dec. 20 shootings that left Ramos and his partner, Wen Jian Liu, dead.

Police union officials have blamed de Blasio for fostering anti-police sentiment for his support of protesters angry that no charges will be filed in the police deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island. At a hospital after the officers' slayings, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio in a sign of disrespect. Lynch said the mayor had "blood on his hands."

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested that officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

De Blasio has stood firmly by the police since the shooting, calling on the demonstrators to temporarily halt their protests and praising officers after the police department announced the arrest of a seventh person since the shooting for making threats against police.

De Blasio and Lynch nodded at each other as they exited the church Saturday and lined up to wait for the casket.

The mayor followed Vice President Joe Biden and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the roster of speakers eulogizing Ramos on Saturday.

Officers inside and outside the church applauded when Biden called the New York Police Department the finest in the world.

"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," the vice president said.

Cuomo called the daylight shootings of the officers as they sat in their cruiser on a street in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section "an attack on all of us."

The attack shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police over a series of high-profile, in-custody deaths.

Funeral plans for Ramos' partner, Officer Wen Jian Liu, have yet to be announced.

When the Ramos family arrived at the church Saturday, the eldest son - wearing his father's NYPD jacket - was hugged by a police officer.

Ramos was described Friday during an eight-hour wake as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

"What happened to my father was a tragedy," Ramos' son, Justin, said in a tearful eulogy viewed by hundreds of officers in the street who watched on giant television screens outside the crowded church. "But his death will not be in vain."

Ramos, a married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend Ramos' funeral.

"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement - it absolutely affects everyone," he said. "We wanted to show our support."

A block from the church, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio."

"If the mayor really wanted to do the right thing, he would have gotten into an NYPD car and rode around Bed Stuy and see the difficult jobs these cops do every day," Mangan said. "The bottom line is there should be more signs out here in support of these cops."

After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.

In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of two unarmed black men - Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island - by white police officers.

"Officer Ramos was a man who saw being a policeman as his ministry. He was being prepared to be a chaplain for the NYPD, so this was really his calling," said Cuomo, "this was his religious mission, and to see him lose his life this way is difficult for anyone to understand."

Lt. Diana Pereira of Hollywood, Fla., took advantage of free airfare on JetBlue to come home to New York, where used to patrol the 41st Precinct in the Bronx. Cory Fitch and four others flew all the way from Minneapolis.

"It breaks out hearts when something like this happens - it could be any of us at any time. That's what hits home," said Fitch.

Ramos' wife and two sons were also at the wake.

Friends and colleagues spoke of Ramos as an embodiment of the selfless, compassionate and heroic nature the New York Police Department wants its finest officers to project.

"He was studying to be a pastor. He had Bible study books in his locker, which is rare for a police officer, but that goes to show you the type of man he was," NYPD Capt. Sergio Centa said before entering Christ Tabernacle Church.

"A guy who dedicated his life to helping others, studying to be a pastor, before coming a police officers, he worked for school safety, you know, protecting kids in school."

Ramos celebrated his 40th birthday this month. He joined the NYPD in 2012 after working as a school security officer. The lifelong Brooklyn resident was married with two sons: a 13-year-old who is in middle school and one who attends Bowdoin College in Maine.

Ramos was in full dress uniform in an open casket, Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James Carver said.

Pastor Ralph Castillo said Ramos was a beloved member of the church. "Whether he was helping a mom with a carriage or bringing someone to their seats, he did it with so much love and so much vigor and so much joy," Castillo said.

"We feel sorry for the family, and nobody deserves to die like this," said fellow churchgoer Hilda Kiefer as she waited to enter the wake.

Liu's funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.

The Silver Shield Foundation, a charity founded by the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, has set aside $40,000 for the education of Ramos' sons. Bowdoin College said it will cover Ramos' older son's education costs as long as he remains a student there.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a charity created after 9/11, says it will pay off the home mortgages of the two slain officers.

Meanwhile, Centa said he's instructed officers at the 84th Precinct where Ramos and Liu worked to be vigilant on patrol.

"Things we took for granted maybe a week or two ago we can't take for granted anymore," Centa said. "You may be in your car and see someone walking up the street toward you. You have to be prepared. You never know. It's a scary time for the police department right now."

On Christmas night, the Ramos family prayed at the memorial and walked a line of officers, thanking every one. "This family is destroyed - wow, it's just crazy," said family spokesman Juan Rodriguez.

According to the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, about 500 officers from Nassau County will be attending Ramos' funeral.

Wake and funeral related closures:

On Saturday, beginning at 7 a.m. and lasting until 1 p.m., Myrtle Avenue between Fresh Pond Road and Cooper Avenue, 67th Street between Myrtle Avenue and Cooper Avenue, and 67th Place between Myrtle Avenue and Cooper Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic.

There will be no parking, and pedestrian traffic will be limited.

Additionally, there will be no parking on Central Avenue between Myrtle Avenue and 73rd Place, Otto Road between Cypress Hills Street and 69th Place, and Metropolitan Avenue between Fresh Pond Road and 73rd Place.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Meanwhile, JetBlue has announced it will offer free flights to law enforcement agencies wanting to send representatives to attend the funeral.