Wake, funeral for slain NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu this weekend
New York Police Officer Wenjian Liu was gunned down in a patrol car with Officer Rafael Ramos on Dec. 20, 2014 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who targeted them because they were cops. He was 32. Credit: NYPD
A wake is planned Saturday and a funeral Sunday for police Officer Wenjian Liu, who was slain Dec. 20 with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, according to his family and NYPD officials.
A viewing for Liu will be Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. at the Aievoli Funeral Home, 1275 65th St., in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, according to a funeral home representative.
Liu's funeral service will follow on Sunday morning at the funeral home, but the exact time was not set as of Monday evening, according to an NYPD official involved in the ceremony's planning. Burial will follow at Cypress Hills Cemetery, which is astride the Brooklyn-Queens border, the official said.
Arrangements for Liu have taken a bit longer to complete than those of Ramos because family members had to secure visas to travel from China.
Monday, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation said it had raised $350,000 toward the purchase of Liu's and Ramos' homes. That included $100,000 donated Monday. The group's goal is $800,000; it has reached 45 percent of its target.
Also Monday, officials noted that the funeral for Ramos last weekend established a number of firsts for the NYPD. It was the first time more than 25,000 uniformed officers massed for a funeral and the first time they lined the 1-mile route of the procession from the church to the cemetery, said an official involved in the planning.
The largest turnout for a police funeral in the city is believed to have been in 1909, when an estimated 200,000 people reportedly lined the Manhattan procession route for Det. Joseph Petrosino, who was murdered while investigating the Mafia in Sicily.
Another first noted by officials at the Ramos funeral was the amassing outside the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens of 380 police motorcycles from numerous departments around the metropolitan area.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
