Thousands attended the funeral of New York police officer Rafael Ramos one week after he and his partner were killed in an ambush on their parked police car.
An estimated 25,000 uniformed police officers lined the streets of Glendale in the borough of Queens on Saturday to pay their respects to Ramos, a 40-year-old father of two.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo and US Vice-President Joe Biden were among those who spoke at the funeral service.
"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of the entire nation," Biden said.
Remembering the city's resilience after the terrorism attacks of September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Biden said New York was a "city of courage and character".
On December 20, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a 28-year-old African American shot dead Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu, 32.
He had vowed on social media to kill police in retaliation for the deaths of two black men, Michael Brown in Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, killed by police.
Brinsley, who shot and seriously wounded his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore hours before heading to New York, killed himself later in a subway station.
Family members said he had undiagnosed mental illness.
The officers' deaths came after several tense weeks that included street protests in New York and other cities drawing attention to heavy-handed police tactics in the wake of the deaths of Brown and Garner.
Scuffles between police and demonstrators during some of the New York protests deepened a rift between the police department and the mayor's office.
The day after Ramos and Liu were gunned down, the head of the police union, Pat Lynch, accused the mayor of failing to show sufficient support for police.
Lynch said Saturday was a day to mourn, but the debate would continue.
"We have to understand the betrayal that [police] feel," Lynch told CNN.
In his speech at the funeral Cuomo said the police department acted with the highest level of professionalism during the demonstrations.
They protected the demonstrators' right of free speech even when they were the targets of insults, he said.
The funeral for Liu has been delayed until members of his family can make arrangements to travel from their home in China, news reports said.
Share
