Mourners gather for slain New York policeman

An NYPD logo is pictured on wall above makeshift memorial at the site where two police officers were shot in the head in the Brooklyn borough of New York, December 22, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/CARLO ALLEGRI

(Reuters) - Police officers in dress uniform and other mourners joined a somber, four-block line outside a New York City church on Friday for the wake of one of two officers shot by a man who said he was avenging the killing of unarmed black men by police.

Targeted for their uniform, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were slain last Saturday afternoon while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn in what is only the seventh instance of police partners being killed together in the city in more than 40 years.

Draped in the New York Police Department's green, white and blue flag, Ramos's coffin was carried into a church in his suburban Queens neighborhood by police officers as colleagues from his Brooklyn station house stood saluting. see more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/26/us-usa-police-idUSKBN0K40WJ20141226