A Brooklyn public school was renamed Thursday in honor of a slain New York City police detective, 10 years after he was shot and killed in the line of duty by a maniac who hated cops.
Dozens of grieving families and NYPD officers celebrated as PS 331 in Dyker Heights was officially named the Detective Wenjiang Liu Civic and Entrepreneurial School.
“The students of this beautiful school will learn the story of my husband,” Liu’s widow, Sunny Liu, told the Post ahead of the unveiling.
“And the daughter will always know that her father was a police officer. And they will have even more respect for the community.”
Liu and his partner, Rafael Ramos, were shot in the head at close range while sitting in a Bedford-Stuyvesant patrol car on December 20, 2014, by an “emotionally troubled” lone gunman who hated police officers. He was shot from a distance and killed in a brazen street execution. Brooklyn.
Sunny and Liu Wenjian had only been married for three months when he was murdered, but thanks to artificial insemination they were able to give birth to a daughter, Angelina, two and a half years after his senseless murder.
The 6-year-old girl currently attends another school in the Dyker Heights neighborhood, but next year she will attend an elementary school named after her heroic father.
“There’s nothing better than this!” said Sunny Liu.
The school’s name change also marked a new milestone: becoming the first Big Apple public school to be named after an Asian American.
This dedication is fitting for the Dyker Heights community, which officials note is nearly 60 percent Asian American. The principal of this school is of Tawaina descent and speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese.
“It means so much not only to my daughter, but also to the Chinese and Asian community,” Sunny Liu said.
The ceremony was joyous despite the circumstances, and Liew and Ramos’ widows emphasized that the wounds are still raw.
Both have watched their families grow since the brutal murder.
Ramos’s widow, Maritza, says that young Angelina “looks like her father,” and even though she has never met him, she has grown up learning about her father’s courage.
“It doesn’t feel like 10 years. It feels like yesterday and time is still going on and obviously it’s been 10 years but it still feels like yesterday to me,” Maritza Ramos said. he told the Post.
