Hero’s solemn congregation
They flocked to a simple, brick church in Queens by the thousands.
Police officers from as far away as Ohio, Georgia and Maine waited hours in a sixblocklong line to pay their respects to Officer Rafael Ramos, one of the two NYPD cops shot dead on a Brooklyn street in a senseless attack last Saturday.
For 14 years, the deeply religious Ramos had called the Christ Tabernacle Church on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale his spiritual home. On Friday afternoon, he lay in his dress uniform in an open casket before its altar, attended by his wife, Maritza, and sons Justin and Jaden.
Seventeen massive floral displays filled the front of the church for the wake, an expanse of carnations, lilies and roses extending nearly wall to wall. One arrangement spelled out his shield number. Another bore the NYPD seal.
“What happened to my father is a tragedy, but his death will not be in vain. He will live on through [my brother] Jayden and I and everything that we do will honor him,” said Justin, who broke down in tears at one point as he spoke to the packed church at the memorial.
“He was studying to be a pastor,” Ramos’ captain at Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct, Sergio Centa, told reporters. “So he had Biblestudy books in his locker, which is very rare for a police officer, but that just goes to show you the type of man he was.”
Dignitaries including Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Peter King, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and the district attorneys of Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island were on hand.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton attended with his wife, Rikki Klieman, and a cadre of NYPD brass.
Also in attendance were the parents, brother, four daughters and two sistersinlaw of Officer Peter Figoski, 47, who was murdered on duty in Brooklyn in December 2011.
Ramos, of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, was two courses short of completing, with honors, an online religion degree through the Faith Evangelical College and Seminary — which on Friday announced it would posthumously award him a bachelor of arts in religion, the Village Voice reported.
“It’s a scary time for the Police Department right now,” Centa said. “You just tell them to be safe, go out there in pairs and be extra cautious.”
That caution was in evidence even at Friday’s wake.
Two NYPD dogs scanned the line of mourners, also checking cars parked on adjacent streets. Emergency Service Unit cops patrolled with assault rifles, and other officers eyed the crowd through binoculars from at least two rooftops.
Ramos had just celebrated his 40th birthday the week before cophating thug Ismaaiyl Brinsley opened fire into the front passenger window of his parked patrol car on a BedfordStuyvesant street, also killing Ramos’ partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, 32. Brinsley committed suicide shortly after.
Tensions remain high for city cops. Since the assassinations, nine men have been charged with making threats against the NYPD.
Michael Wallace, 26, was arrested Friday morning and charged with terroristic threats for telling an offduty police officer he was looking to “beat a cop’s ass” and making a threatening gesture, cops said.
Ramos’ funeral will take place Saturday at 10 a.m. at the church. Liu’s funeral was still being planned.
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger and Matt McNulty