Police officers remained vigilant against any threats on Thursday as the city readied itself for a wake and a funeral this weekend for one of two officers slain in their patrol car.
The services for Officer Rafael Ramos are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Ramos was killed last weekend with his partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street. The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had referenced high-profile cases of white police officers killing unarmed black men and had vowed to put “wings on pigs,” later killed himself.
Visitors are expected to pay their respects to Ramos at Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens on Friday night. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to attend Ramos’ funeral on Saturday.
Funeral arrangements for Liu haven’t been announced.
Meanwhile, police on Thursday said they had made a total of six arrests of people accused of threatening officers.
A seventh man was arrested in Queens on gun charges after he was overheard making threats against police officers and talking about guns in his home as he spoke on his cellphone at a Queens bank, police said. He was not charged with making threats, police said.
In a holiday statement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo mentioned the slain officers and urged people to “offer support to their families any way we can.”
On Tuesday, demonstrators took to Manhattan streets to resume their protests over the failure of grand juries to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men, especially Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island.
Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio had urged calm be returned to the streets after the shooting of the two officers in Brooklyn.
De Blasio on Wednesday said anti-police protests were “deeply divisive” during a “period of remembrances” for the officers. He said some things being said by fringe elements of the protest movement were “hateful words that attempt to divide this city in a time when we need to come together.”
(AP)