WASHINGTON, December 24 (Sputnik) — US Vice President Joe Biden will attend the service for slain New York police officer Rafael Ramos, who was killed last Saturday while on duty, White House spokesperson Eric Schultz has said in a statement.
"The [US] President [Barack Obama] has asked Vice President Biden to attend the service for Officer Rafael Ramos and is grateful that the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will be travelling to New York City to attend the service on Saturday," the statement, released Tuesday, said.
Two police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were killed in their patrol car in Brooklyn last Saturday by Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, an African-American with a long history of arrest and mental instability.
US President Barack Obama condemned the murder, expressing sympathy for the family and friends of the officers killed.
The shooting of the officers took place several weeks after a series of protests against police brutality erupted across the United States, in response to grand jury decisions not to indict the white police officers responsible for the deaths of two African-Americans — Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Brown, an 18-year-old teenager, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. Garner died when officer Daniel Pantaleo held him in a fatal chokehold last July in New York.
On Tuesday, a Texas grand jury decided not to indict a Houston police officer for killing unarmed 26-year-old African-American Jordan Baker. Officer Juventino Castro shot Baker last January.
