AP/John MinchilloPolice helicopters fly over officers along the funeral procession route during the funeral service of New York City police officer Rafael Ramos.The middle-class Queens neighborhood of Glendale was transformed Saturday by the funeral for the NYPD officer assassinated the week before.
Thousands of officers swarmed the streets to honor Officer Rafael Ramos, a 40-year-old father of two, who was killed alongside his partner, Wenjian Liu, while sitting in their patrol car the previous Saturday. Police identified the killer as Ismaaiyl Brinsley and said he had targeted the officers as revenge for the controversial deaths of unarmed black men during arrests in Staten Island, New York, and Ferguson, Missouri.
"Every time I attend a cop's funeral, I pray that it will be the last," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said at the funeral, according to his prepared remarks. "But I know it won't. As I watch the casket carried past all those salutes, I wish it weren't real. But it is."
According to The New York Times, services for Liu have been delayed so families members can make arrangements to travel from China.
View photos from Saturday's event below.
The sun rises as an NYPD officer walks toward Christ Tabernacle Church, where the services were held.
AP/Julio Cortez
Motorcycle officers lead the funeral procession.
AP/John Minchillo
Police officers bow their heads.
AP/John Minchillo
Officers hold their hands in prayer.
AP/John Minchillo
Mourners stand at a barricade near Christ Tabernacle Church.
AP/John Minchillo
Thousands of police officers and others stand at attention as the hearse passes by.
AP/Craig Ruttle
Thousands salute during the National Anthem.
AP/Craig Ruttle
Upset with Mayor Bill de Blasio's controversial remarks about the Eric Garner case, police turned their back on de Blasio's eulogy for Ramos.
AP/John Minchillo
Thousands of police officers stand at attention as a procession carrying Ramos passes by after his funeral.
AP/Craig Ruttle
Sons Jaden Ramos, left, and Justin Ramos, sit in a limousine following the services.
AP/Julio Cortez