Hong Kong Businessman Donates $1 Million to Families of Slain NYPD Officers

A Hong Kong businessman donated $1 million to the families of the two officers shot and killed while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn last month.

The donor, who chose to remain anonymous, donated $500,000 to the education fund set up for the children of officer Rafael Ramos and another $500,000 to officer Wenjian Liu's father.

The businessman decided to make the donation because he was moved by the story of their execution-style slayings five days before Christmas -- a story that had a "profound" global impact, an attorney for Sing Tao Newspaper, which facilitated the money transfer, said at a Friday news briefing. 

Ramos' widow thanked the donor for the generosity.

"It's a blessing," she said. "It's going to help a lot."

Liu's father, who emigrated from China with Liu when he was a boy, echoed the sentiment. 

"I'm very sad because I lost my only son," said Wei Tang Liu. "But I do thank everyone for their support, their generosity."

The Liu family sat down with NBC 4 New York Friday after the announcement to share their grief over the loss of their son and husband.

Wei Tang Liu recalled his son telling him as a student: "When I'm finished with school, Dad, I'm going to be a cop." 

"He just try to his best to do his job, to protect the people," said his widow Pei Xia Chen, who had known Liu for six years before marrying him. 

"He just won't talk about his job at home because he just wants to have a normal life," she said. "He doesn't want us to worry about him, we don't talk about his work at home." 

Chen said Liu was a devoted family man who even took his parents on their honeymoon. She showed NBC 4 New York a picture from the trip, one of their last family photos.

"Every time he finish work, first thing he's gonna do, call the parents and then call me, 'I'm finished with work, I'm on my way home to pick you up,'" she said. 

On Dec. 20, Liu called his parents first to say he was working overtime and that the officer who was supposed to relieve him was running late. 

The events that unfolded over the next day are now familiar: Ramos and Liu were sitting in their patrol car at Tompkins and Myrtle avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant when Ismaiiyl Brinsley approached and shot each of the officers. Brinsley, who had posted on Instagram that he was "putting wings on pigs," then ran into a nearby subway station and took his own life.

The shooting caused tensions to worsen between Mayor de Blasio and police unions, who said the mayor hadn't supported the rank and file in the wake of protests following a grand jury's decision not to indict an NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island. 

Friday's donation was the latest outpouring of support for the officers. Thousands visited a makeshift memorial set up at the street corner where the officers died, and mourners and police officers from around the world turned out for Liu and Ramos' funerals.

Several organizations have made donations to the families following Liu and Ramos' deaths as well.

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