New York (CNN) At a funeral for Wenjian Liu on Sunday, the slain New York Police officer was remembered as a family man, a dedicated police officer, an avid fisherman and a person who embraced the best of what the United States can be.
Liu was 12 when his parents emigrated with him in 1994 from Canton, China.
His family said that the first souvenir he bought when he arrived was a sticker of the Statue of Liberty. He valued law and order and always wanted to be an officer.
Weeping, his wife Pei Xia Chen told the thousands of mourners who gathered at Brooklyn's Aievoli Funeral Home that her husband was dedicated to his job and he understood the awesome responsibility it entailed.
"We spoke about work often," she said, "and how much respect he had for the law, how he applied the law ... with courtesy, with respect and with the highest professionalism."
The couple had been married for only two months when Liu was shot to death December 20 as he sat in his patrol car next his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos. In uniform, Ramos and Liu were apparently murdered simply because they were cops. Their killer had posted on social media his desire to end police officers' lives.
