Mourners remember slain New York officer

Mourners gathered at a church in the New York borough of Queens on Friday for a memorial service for slain police officer Rafael Ramos.

The 40-year-old was shot and killed last week along with his partner, Wenjian Liu, 32, as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn. The gunman, named as 28-year-old African-American Ismaaiyl Brinsley, fled into a subway station and committed suicide.

Brinsley had posted angry messages on social media against police and the government, vowing to kill officers in retaliation for the deaths of other black men at the hands of police. Family members said he had an undiagnosed mental illness.

Ramos' coffin, draped in the New York Police Department flag, was carried into the church as police officers from his station house stood saluting.

Ramos was a husband and father of two teenage sons. He had been in the force for two years. His funeral will take place on Saturday, while Liu's has been delayed so family members from China can make travel arrangements.

The officers' killing follows tumultuous months in the US and debate over the role that race plays in how police forces deal with the public, as well as legal decisions clearing officers in the deaths of black men.

Earlier this week, policemen shot dead a young black man at a gas station in St. Louis, Missouri, miles from where unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed in August. In November, a Missouri grand jury declined to indict white police officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown.

Earlier this month, a New York grand jury cleared Daniel Pantaleo, a white police officer who applied a chokehold grip to unarmed black man Eric Garner, who later died. After that judgment, US Attorney General Eric Holder launched an investigation into Garner's death.

On Tuesday, a grand jury in Houston declined to indict Juventino Castro, who was off duty but working a private security job at a mall when he fatally shot Jordan Baker, a 26-year-old unarmed black man, in January.

jr/cmk (dpa, Reuters)