Albany police officers attend funeral services for fallen New York officer

ALBANY — Officers from throughout the nation, including Southwest Georgia, were recently in New York to say goodbye to a fellow officer who had died in the line of duty.

Jeffrey Mitchell, a patrolman with the Albany Police Department, recently attended the funeral for Rafael Ramos, one of the New York officers killed in a patrol car the Saturday before Christmas.

Mitchell described it as a experience of sorrow, but also one where he was able to interact with fellow police officers.

“Being in law enforcement is a brotherhood,” he said. “We all feel the pain.

“It was definitely a sense of sorrow … seeing the officers there, feeling their pain.”

Mitchell and another police officer from Albany were able to go to New York for the service Saturday after going onto a law enforcement website and accessing free plane tickets for the trip. He was outside the church several blocks away among a sea of other officers. The area had been shut down and attendance from individuals such as Vice President Joe Biden demanded high security.

As someone who has spent more than two years wearing a patrolman’s uniform, the thought of what happened was somewhat scary for Mitchell.

“It is a bad feeling, knowing what happened,” he said. “They were taking a meal break in their vehicles. … You know that one day you may lose your life, but you hope it doesn’t happen.”

News reports said that Ramos, along with Wenjian Liu, were sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn when they were shot at point-blank range and killed on Dec. 20 by a man who, officials said, had traveled from Baltimore vowing to kill police officers. The killer then committed suicide with the same gun, authorities said.

Liu and Ramos were in the car near Myrtle and Tompkins Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the shadow of a housing project when gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley walked up to the passenger-side window and fired shot several rounds into the heads and upper bodies of the officers, who never drew their weapons, authorities said.

Brinsley, 28, then was reported to have fled down the street and onto the platform of a nearby subway station, where he killed himself as police closed in. The police recovered a silver semiautomatic handgun. Brinsley, who had a long criminal history, including robbery and carrying a concealed gun, is believed to have shot his former girlfriend near Baltimore before traveling to Brooklyn, news agencies have reported.

Authorities in Baltimore reportedly sent a warning that Brinsley made these threats, but it was received in New York at nearly the same time as the killings occurred.

The double shooting comes at a time in which the public’s trust in law enforcement has been strained. A grand jury declined to bring criminal charges in the case of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after a police chokehold in July. Those protests followed the ones in Ferguson, Mo., after there was no indictment brought forth in the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.

“In the position we are in, we deal with everybody,” Mitchell said. “We are constantly trying to help everyone we can.”

Not everyone supports law enforcement officers, he said.

Mitchell said it was good to show support “anytime you can,” through “the good times and the bad.”

Mitchell said that, overall, he feels safe working in Albany. He offered some counsel to those considering a job in law enforcement.

“Being an officer is not something you do for the paycheck,” he said. “It you want to be a police officer, go for it.”

There also are representatives from the APD expected to attend funeral services for Liu, which reports indicate is scheduled for this weekend.