Grief in New York over officers' deaths

NEW YORK—Grief piled on top of grief in New York after the execution-style murder of two New York Police Department officers on Saturday as they sat in their patrol car.

The officers’ deaths halted protests in New York over the death of Eric Garner and opened a deep rift between the NYPD and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who police officer unions say supported an anti-police atmosphere. Aside from the furor around Garner’s death, de Blasio has pushed for changes in the NYPD over the last year. But the tension between the mayor and the police is even deeper now, with police officers turning their backs on de Blasio when he arrived at the hospital that took in the two officers after the shooting.

On Sunday, de Blasio, who is not religious, went to worship at St. Patrick’s Cathedral under Cardinal Timothy Dolan. De Blasio and Dolan have developed a friendship over the last year, and the two have met with local religious leaders over the unrest following Garner’s death.

“Here we are anticipating the joy of Christmas, and we feel like we’re nearer to Good Friday,” Dolan said during the mass.

Officer Wenjian Liu, 32, had served with the NYPD for 7 years and was recently married. Officer Rafael Ramos, 40, had served on the force for two years and had a wife and at least two children, one in college and one in middle school. The Ramos family were members at Christ Tabernacle, a plant of Brooklyn Tabernacle. Ramos was scheduled to graduate Sunday from the New York State Chaplain Task Force, according to the New York Daily News.

Shortly before he allegedly committed the crime, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, posted on Instagram his plans to murder two officers, saying it would serve as revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Brinsley apparently lived in Georgia, where he had been arrested multiple times for various low-level crimes in recent years. Early on Saturday, he allegedly shot and wounded a former girlfriend in Baltimore. Then he traveled to Brooklyn. Baltimore police were tracking his whereabouts and sent an alert to the NYPD at about the same time Brinsley allegedly shot the officers. As police pursued him, he fled into a nearby subway station, where he shot himself and died, according to police.

Ramos’ cousin, Ronie Gonzalez spoke to media for the family and said “our faith in God” was keeping them strong.

“[Brinsley is] in the hands of God now,” Gonzalez told reporters. “We don’t believe in vengeance. We just forgive.”

Ramos’ 13-year-old son posted on Facebook about his father.

“Today is the worst day of my life,” the boy, whose posts are public, wrote. “Today I had to say bye to my father. He was [there] for me everyday of my life, he was the best father I could ask for. It’s horrible that someone gets shot dead just for being a police officer. Everyone says they hate cops but they are the people that they call for help. I will always love you and I will never forget you. RIP Dad.”

Bishop David Benke from St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Cypress Hills told DNAinfo Ramos was a good father.

“[Ramos] was the present dad, and I think that’s the difference in this kind of community,” he said. One of the Ramos children had attended the school at St. Peter’s. “There’s a pretty razor-thin line between the streets and the good life and the next step. When the parents care to the degree that he did, that’s when it works.”

Church leaders across the city grieved, with Ramos’ church, Christ Tabernacle, writing that “our hearts are heavy.”

“When will the violence end?” tweeted Jon Tyson, lead pastor of one of the largest evangelical churches in the city, Trinity Grace. “Praying for the families of the fallen officers. This is just heartbreaking.”

The murders upended the conversation in the city about Garner’s death and the grand jury process. Thabiti Anyabwile, assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., has written about the Garner issue at The Gospel Coalition. In a new post he called for a moratorium on protests and for protestors to change their tone toward police officers.

“The temptation is to speak when we should listen, to hastily ‘fix’ when what is broken cannot be replaced or easily repaired,” he wrote. “Even Job’s friends sat several days in silence. We all should do the same, and when we speak again we should try to speak a better word than Job’s ‘comforters.’ But right now, I want to mourn the lives of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.”

Christ Tabernacle shared Jeremiah 29:7: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”