A cold rain pelted the long, blue line of police officers that stretched for blocks outside the Aievoli Funeral Home in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn on Saturday.
They were there, most of them standing stoically, without raincoats or umbrellas, for the wake for Officer Wenjian Liu, who was fatally shot along with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, on Dec. 20 while the two sat in their patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Among the first to arrive were hundreds of officers from the 84th Precinct, where both men had been assigned. They streamed out of a nearby church in their dress blue uniforms, marching in unison, their white-gloved hands swinging in metronomic rhythm as they headed into the funeral home in pairs.
Thousands of police officers in various shades and styles of uniform stood, some for hours, outside the funeral home, a squat, tan-brick building on 65th Street.
They had come from cities like Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago, and also from small towns.
“We’re all brothers in this line of work,” said Captain Bill Smith of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, which had sent a contingent of motorcycle officers up for the weekend. Their powerful bikes were parked outside the funeral home.
The killing of the two officers was big news at home, said Cherokee County Deputy Sheriff Dave Wooldridge. There was never a question that they would travel to New York to pay their respects. “We all bleed blue,” he said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived around 1 p.m. with Police Commissioner William J. Bratton. The two men entered the funeral home to salutes from a group of police officials at the entrance. It was a different reception from the one the mayor received last weekend, when groups of officers turned their backs when the Mr. de Blasio’s image appeared on screens outside a Queens church as he delivered the eulogy for Officer Ramos.
On Friday, Mr. Bratton distributed a memo to police officers citywide in which he urged them not to repeat the gesture at Officer Liu’s funeral on Sunday, where Mr. de Blasio is scheduled to deliver the eulogy.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose father, Mario M. Cuomo, died on Thursday, also came to pay his respects.
“Today is not the day for my dad,” the governor said to reporters. He added, “Today is about the Liu family.” Plans call for Officer Liu’s funeral to include a Chinese ceremony led by Buddhist monks, then a traditional police ceremony and a burial at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Officer Liu, 32, had been on the police force for seven years and had gotten married just two months before he died. He emigrated from China some 20 years ago, learned English and aspired to be a police officer while in high school. He served in the 72nd Precinct’s auxiliary unit before becoming an officer.
Utility poles along 65th Street were adorned with ribbons and posters in tribute to the Police Department and to Officer Liu.
The funeral arrangements for Officer Liu had been delayed so that relatives from China could get the documents needed to travel to the United States. In interviews, some of those relatives recalled that he had enjoyed going fishing with his father and would bring back plenty of fish to share with friends and neighbors.
Most of those at the wake said they did not know Officer Liu. Police officers in attendance — many of them affiliated with Asian-American law enforcement associations from around the country — said they had come to show support for a fellow police officer killed in the line of duty.
“He’s a brother in blue, a fallen brother, and we’re here to pay our respects,” said Officer Al Kim of the Chicago Police Department.
Civilians spoke of seeing news reports about the shooting, and of wanting to show their appreciation for Officer Liu.
“I didn’t personally know him, but I could see from the news reports how hard he worked to serve,” said Nancy Lam of the New York City Housing Authority’s Chinese-American Association. “He was very helpful and devoted, and it’s the least we can do, to come out and show our support.”
Behind her was Lauren Henrich, 21, a college student who lives nearby. She said one of her friends was a police officer who briefly worked with Officer Liu and “said he was awesome man, very down to earth.”
Inside the funeral home, people filed past a poster showing Officer Liu with a detective’s gold shield superimposed over his chest — a reflection of the posthumous promotions to detective, first grade, that he and Officer Ramos received.
The mourners paused briefly in front of the coffin, in which Officer Liu’s body was laid out in his police uniform. Members of his family sat in front of the coffin near a table set with fruit and other food, as offerings.
In another room, Chinese mourners performed a typical ritual, folding pieces of paper known as joss into shapes resembling gold ingots. Uniformed police officers fed the joss into a roaring fireplace next to an altar that held burning incense and a photo of Officer Liu toward which many bowed three times.
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