De Blasio: I Was Not Depressed After Cop Killings
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio insists he was not depressed in the days after last month's deadly ambush on two NYPD officers in Brooklyn.
De Blasio's comments came in response to an article in The New York Times, which quoted aides to the mayor as saying he "sounded depressed" after the murders of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
"No. I was not. I am not," de Blasio bluntly told reporters, including WCBS 880's Rich Lamb, Monday.
De Blasio: I Was Not Depressed After Cop Killings
The mayor did articulate, though, how searing an experience it was for him.
"I was at that hospital, standing over and praying over those two bodies with members of the clergy and members of the NYPD," de Blasio said. "It's an experience no one should have to have, especially the family members.
"How could you not feel that? How could you not be deeply saddened? That doesn't clear after a day. That hangs with you. It should hang with you. It's a reminder of the sacrifices men and women in uniform -- police and military and others -- make."
The mayor declared there are a lot of armchair analysts out there, adding he was "saddened but resolute."
Liu and Ramos were shot dead Dec. 20 in their squad car by a gunman who indicated on social media he was seeking revenge for the police-involved killings of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The killings widened the rift between the mayor and police. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch quickly said de Blasio had "blood on his hands" for not supporting the NYPD following the grand jury's decision not to indict a white officer in the apparent chokehold death of Garner, an unarmed black man.
Some officers turned their backs on de Blasio as he walked into the hospital following the officers' deaths. They did the same at the funerals of both slain officers.
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