Two Collier
County Sheriff’s Office deputies will attend the funeral of slain New York City
Police Department Detective Wenjian Liu this weekend.
Lt. Timothy
Pratt and Detective David Johnson will be flying to New York courtesy of
JetBlue Airways.
Lt. Pratt
and Detective Johnson will stand alongside thousands of other law enforcement
officers from New York and around the country who are expected to attend the funeral
in Brooklyn.
“We will be
showing support for someone who made the ultimate sacrifice for doing their
job,” Lt. Pratt said.
On Dec. 20, Detective
Liu and his partner Detective Rafael Ramos were shot to death while they ate
lunch inside their patrol car on a Brooklyn street by a gunman who later killed
himself. The gunman had posted comments online about his plans to attack law
enforcement.
While the CCSO deputies did not know
Detective Ramos and Detective Liu, the call to stand in support is very strong,
they said.
“That could
have been any one of us,” Detective
Johnson said. “Those guys were doing their jobs. It breaks my heart.”
Lt. Pratt
and Detective Johnson are taking their own time off and there is no cost to
taxpayers. JetBlue offered free flights to law enforcement officers – two per
agency - who wanted to attend funeral
services for Detective Liu and Detective Ramos.
JetBlue flew
more than 700 law enforcement officers from across the country to New York for Detective
Ramos’ funeral Dec. 27.
