Vice President Joe Biden will attend the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, one of two New York City police officers shot this weekend in a grisly execution-style killing.
President Obama asked Biden to attend the funeral service this Saturday, according to White House spokesman Eric Schultz. He will be joined by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.
{mosads}The president is on vacation in Hawaii with his family.
Ramos and his partner Wenjian Liu were shot in their patrol car last weekend and died shortly after the attack. The killer ultimately committed suicide.
According to reports, the gunman posted anti-police messages on social media before he shot the officers, suggesting he was retaliating for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police.
The deaths of Garner and Brown, two unarmed black men killed by white police officers, sparked a debate over race and police tactics and protests nationwide.
Some critics said the protests incited violence and that Obama and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio should have forcefully condemned the demonstrations.
Obama condemned the murder of Liu and Ramos in a written statement but hasn’t publicly spoken on the issue from his vacation.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) deflected criticism away from de Blasio and towards Obama during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” He said that the president led “four months of propaganda” encouraging people to “hate the police.”
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) also took the president to task during an appearance on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” on Monday. He blasted the president for connecting the police-involved death in Staten Island to race relations and for asking officers to change their tactics.
Obama recently formed a task force to explore ways to improve relations between police and minority communities.
This story was updated at 5:19 p.m.