Denis Hamill/New York Daily News The Sanches family visits the memorial for Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn on Saturday. It had been an NYPD blue Christmas.
As thousands of brothers and sisters in blue attended Officer Rafael Ramos’ funeral in Glendale, Queens, on Saturday — a family named Sanches joined hands in prayer about 3 miles away at the memorial to Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu where they were assassinated in Brooklyn.
This was just one family Ramos and Liu died protecting.
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Jesus and Nancy Sanches got off the subway at Myrtle Ave. in Brooklyn for the first time a few weeks ago with their 9-year-old son, Jesus Jr. They were nervous.
“I was scared because we were from the Bronx,” Nancy says. “We didn’t know anything about Brooklyn.”
Jesus, 40, was also apprehensive.
Todd Maisel/New York Daily News Police Officer Rafael Ramos was buried Saturday after a funeral at Christ Tabernacle Church in Glendale, Queens. Meanwhile, a family in Brooklyn recalled how the officer looked out for them in a time of need. “I had no idea which way to walk with my family to find the homeless shelter,” Jesus says. “I was relieved to see a cop right at the subway entrance.”
“You could just tell by his pleasant face that this cop was a nice guy,” Nancy, 45, recalled.
“I asked him where we could find the Park Manor shelter,” Jesus says. “The cop went out of his way to show us. He was so polite, respectful, helpful. I looked at his nameplate. It said Ramos.”
“I’d see him every day when I took the subway back to the Bronx where I work as a home attendant,” Nancy says.
DCPI Officers Rafael Ramos (left) and Wenjian Liu were executed while on duty in Brooklyn on Dec. 20. 
Marc A. Hermann for New York Daily News A memorial to Detective Peter Figoski is seen outside the basement apartment at 25 Pine St. in Brooklyn, where he was fatally shot on Dec. 12, 2011. “It was great to see cops everywhere around here,” says Jesus. “Because these are tough projects, the Tompkins Houses, the Marcy Houses. The cops like Officer Ramos made me feel like my wife and son were safe.”
The Sanches family story is a cautionary tale of the unforgiving city. Until the summer, Jesus Sanches worked as a forklift operator. They had a nice apartment in the Bronx.
“Then I really hurt my back badly,” says Jesus. “I couldn’t work. Lost my job. My wife’s salary wasn’t enough to pay the rent.”
They were soon evicted, homeless, and as winter loomed they entered the city’s shelter system.
On the afternoon of Dec. 20, Jesus and Nancy were at Roosevelt Hospital where their grown daughter Jennifer Fernandez was giving birth to a baby girl named Shy.
He was so polite, respectful, helpful. I looked at his nameplate. It said Ramos.
“On the waiting room TV there was this story about a mental case who rushed out of the Tompkins projects and shot two cops dead near our homeless shelter and then shot himself,” says Nancy.
“Our granddaughter was being born as these two cops were being killed,” adds Jesus.
He gazed at the memorial where a poster read: “Imagine all the people living life as one.” That’s a line written by John Lennon, also shot dead by a lone nut with a handgun.
James Keivom/New York Daily News An NYPD officer leaves the Christ Tabernacle Church following the funeral for Ramos. “The next day I saw Officer Ramos’ kind, nice-guy face in the Daily News,” says Nancy, sighing. “I cried. We lost a good and caring man who helped people like us.”
“Protected people like us,” says Jesus. “Now, since they were murdered, there are no more cops on every corner. It’s scary.”
“We come here every day to say a prayer for Ramos and his partner,” says Nancy. “To thank them.”
Earlier, as I drove from the Ramos funeral, I steered down Jamaica Ave. and over to 25 Pine St. where Officer Pete Figoski, the last cop murdered in the line of duty before last weekend, drew his last breath on Dec. 12, 2011. A standup Christmas wreath with gold trim bore a banner that read: PETER FIGOSKI — NEVER FORGOTTEN. A single gutted votive candle stood in the areaway beside the basement door where Figoski was shot to death.
We lost a good and caring man who helped people like us.
“The 75th Precinct placed the wreath,” said the house owner, who wouldn’t give a name. “It’s hard for me to know he died here. I’m on the 75th Precinct Council. I’m in real estate, active in the community. I met Officer Figoski a few times in the precinct. Nice guy. I also met Officer Ramos here and there because I used to go to the same church where his funeral is happening. Pine St. has been completely quiet since the killing. But the precinct cops bring a wreath every year. They never forget.”
Neither will the Sanches family ever forget Officer Rafael Ramos who was a smiling guardian at the gate when this hard-luck family arrived in Brooklyn to find room at the inn of a homeless shelter.
“Every time our granddaughter Shy has a birthday it will be bittersweet because I will remember it was the same day that Officer Ramos and his partner were murdered,” says Nancy Sanches, standing on the killing ground 3 miles down Myrtle Ave. from Ramos’ funeral.
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