The weeping father of a slain city cop hugged Vice President Biden on a Brooklyn sidewalk Saturday after a heartwarming 25-minute visit.
Biden and his wife Jill spent 25 minutes in the Brooklyn home of Wenjian Liu with the officer’s widow and other relatives, earning a hug from the cop’s weeping father.The weeping father of a slain city cop hugged Vice President Biden on a Brooklyn sidewalk Saturday after a heartwarming 25-minute visit.
Biden, after eulogizing Officer Rafael Ramos, offered his condolences to the family of Wenjian Liu — the second of two city cops assassinated last weekend.
Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, sat with the officer’s widow and other relatives before earning his embrace from Liu’s distraught father.
“These people will be with you your whole life,” Biden told the father, referring to the NYPD. “You now have a family larger than you ever thought you’d have. God bless and take care.”
The vice president made a point of greeting the nine police officers, all in dress uniform, assigned to the Liu home.
“You guys are the best, you really are,” Biden said. “You guys are really the best damn force in America. I don’t say that lightly.”
The VP shook each officer’s hand and gave them a small “VP” medallion.
“This won’t get you anything except into the White House,” joked Biden, whose arrival caused a stir in the neighborhood — with Secret Service officers keeping street gawkers at bay.
NYPD Assistant Chief Owen Monaghan, head of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, said the visit meant a lot to the mourning family.
“To lend support, it meant the world,” said Monaghan. “You know he mentioned to the Lius that they have a lifelong family. I certainly echo that.”
Though some members of the Liu family attended the funeral for Ramos, his wife and parents stayed home because of an Asian custom where they don’t leave the house for a grieving period, according to Monaghan.
This article originally appeared in The New York Daily News
