Police heading from Maine to funeral of NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Very early Saturday morning, police officers from all over Maine will board a charter bus and head to New York City for a sad but important mission. The officers are going to attend the funeral of New York Police Department Officer Rafael Ramos, who was shot and killed a week ago in Brooklyn. Ramos, 40, and 32-year-old Officer Wenjian Liu, whose funeral arrangements are still pending, were killed last Saturday by a gunman who ambushed them in their patrol car before killing himself. “It’s the right thing to do,” Sgt. John O’Malley of the Scarborough Police Department said Friday. “We always try and get to officer funerals, especially when it’s a line-of-duty death.” Ramos’ funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, with Vice President Joe Biden expected to be among a large gathering of mourners. O’Malley is organizing the trip from Maine, and said that so far, officers from 23 agencies planned to meet up with the Scarborough police at 3 a.m. Saturday to get on the bus. O’Malley said that about 25 seats on the VIP charter bus were still available, if more police want to join the officers from Auburn, Belfast, Ellsworth, Portland, Skowhegan, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and other departments around the state. “It is tremendously emotional. Very moving,” he said of police funerals. “The main purpose is to show our support for the family of the fallen officer and give them comfort. It’s also to show support and comfort for the officers in the department that are left behind.” O’Malley said that police come from all over the country and even the world to show solidarity during funerals of their fellow officers. At the funeral last year for Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who was killed by the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, O’Malley was among more than 5,000 law enforcement officials who came to pay their respects. “Officers from every corner in the world were there,” the Scarborough police sergeant said. “It’s so comforting.” The Maine Association of Police has donated $1,000 toward the cost of chartering the bus, leaving individual officers to pay for their share of the remainder, he said. “It’s $104 per officer right now,” O’Malley said, with 23 officers confirmed. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the slaying of Ramos and Liu an execution-style “assassination” and ordered flags flown at half staff around the city the day after the attack. The shooter, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Abdula Brinsley, earlier that day had shot and wounded his former girlfriend in Baltimore before traveling to New York with the stated intention of killing police. After shooting Ramos and Liu, Brinsley fled to a nearby subway station, where he shot himself in the head and died, according to NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton. The attack was the first fatal shooting of an NYPD officer since 2011 and followed weeks of sometimes violent protests around the country over a pair of incidents in which white police officers shot and killed unarmed black men. Brinsley, who was black, shot and killed officers who were Hispanic and Asian-American. Ramos had a son who is a sophomore at Bowdoin College. The day after the officers were killed, Bowdoin College President Barry Mills told Justin Ramos’ family that the college would provide full financial aid to enable him to complete his college education. O’Malley said that while there have been some vocal critics of police officers in the news lately, he does not believe they represent the views of most people. “You have to believe and remember that they are the minority,” he said. “That we’re here to do the right thing, and the majority of people support us, as long as we do the right thing.” If other officers are interested in getting on the bus, they can call Sgt. John O’Malley at 883-6361. Reuters contributed to this report.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:30:57 +0000
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