Final salute for NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia in the Bronx
TREMONT, Bronx (WABC) -- Family, friends and colleagues are saying their final goodbyes to NYPD officer Miosotis Familia, who was shot and killed while sitting inside her police vehicle last week.
For a few moments on Monday, a somber pause along one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Bronx. Stone-faced members of the NYPD slowly carried the flag-draped casket into the World Changers Church on the Grand Concourse as the NYPD takes the first, painful steps to lay their fellow officer to rest.
Eyewitness News will provide live streaming coverage of the funeral services at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.
For several blocks, people from all different backgrounds lined up to pay their respects, struck by the senseless murder of Officer Familia. This community also came together at candlelight vigil Saturday night outside the 46th Precinct where she worked.
"It's a sad situation when officers here to serve and to protect - and something like this happens, so I took today off, just to be here today," Jamie Martell said.
Those in the neighborhood where Officer Familia was randomly gunned down last Wednesday remember her for her smile and for her approachability.
"It was 2 cops come up the block and I would speak to her, not knowing her, but she just had a cheerful personality," Jeanette Wright said
Mayor de Blasio visited with her family at the apartment where she had lived, the sole provider for her 3 children. He had no comment to reporters after the visit.
The 48-year-old was shot while sitting in the front passenger seat of a police RV stationed in the area as a result of a triple shooting in the area in March. Officer Familia was a 12-year police veteran.
As for the way she died, the way her killer raged against police, it's enough, they say, and this case should speak volumes.
"We cannot allow this anti-police atmosphere to put our police officers in danger. If we in uniform are in danger, the public doesn't have a chance," Patrick Lynch of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association said.
