The overwrought widow of murdered NYPD officer Wenjian Liu offered her teary thanks Friday after a charity confirmed its commitment to pay off the newlywed’s mortgage.
Pei Xia Chen, who married Liu just three months before his execution last Saturday, stood crying and hugging her relatives during a Staten Island news conference.
“When you see somebody in despair, you bring them some joy,” said Frank Siller, chairman of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. “When you see somebody that is in darkness, you bring them light.
“And I know that us as a community and I know that our foundation is going to be there for them.”
The foundation, launched in memory of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller after 9/11, intends to cover the combined $800,000 payments on the homes of Liu and fellow Officer Rafael Ramos.
The two cops were gunned down in a cold-blooded execution last weekend in Brooklyn.
“We want to pay their mortgages off in full so they don’t have that burden,” said Siller. “And that will ease some of their pain, that will lighten the load on their shoulders a little bit.”
Ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who met with both the Liu and Ramos families after the shootings, kicked in $20,000 to the cause. The foundation has raised nearly $70,000 in its first 48 hours of fund-raising.
Giuliani recounted how the Liu family depended on the 32-year-old officer to cover their bills, and noted that Ramos was the father of two sons.
The money “doesn’t bring back either of these great men, but it does help,” said Giuliani. “I do see too many of these situations not to know that it helps.”
Chen and her relatives didn’t speak, but released a statement of thanks for the foundation’s generosity. During the news conference, the family shared tears, hugs and tissues.