Thousands remember slain NYPD officer Rafael Ramos

A police officer who was shot to death with his partner in Bed-Stuy has been laid to rest.

Thousands lined the streets outside of Christ Tabernacle Church in Glendale, Queens on Saturday to remember Rafael Ramos. The surrounding streets were blocked off and filled with NYPD officers in dress blues, as well as law enforcement members from around the country who traveled to remember Ramos and his service..

Ramos was shot and killed alongside his partner, Wenjian Liu, as they were sitting in their patrol car on Dec. 20. The shooter, who vowed to “put wings on pigs” on social media, committed suicide.

Vice President Joe Biden, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton eulogized Ramos.

“We’re in a city struggling to define itself, where people are searching for what they stand for and why, where people claim to know best what it’s like to be everybody else,” said Bratton, referring to weeks of protests in the city against police brutality. “But we know who we are, because we know who Rafael Ramos was.”

Bratton said Ramos lost his father when he was a baby, and as he grew older, took on a father-figure role. Bratton said Ramos, who was studying to be a minister with the department, would be posthumously named a chaplain.

“I extend my condolences to another family – the family of the NYPD that is hurting so deeply right now, men and women feeling this loss so personally, so deeply, as their families feel the loss as well,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

“Officer Ramos put his life on the line every day so other New Yorkers could live in peace, so they could live in safety. That’s what he believed in,” de Blasio said.

Outside the church, many officers from New York and beyond turned their backs on de Blasio. Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said the mayor has blood on his hands, and that the city accommodating recent protests led to the officers being killed.

Liu’s family attended the funeral. Arrangements for Liu’s funeral have not been finalized.