New York, December 22 (RHC)-- The shooting deaths of two New York police officers by a deranged man has deepened an already widening rift between the city hall and police department. When New York Mayro Bill de Blasio and police commissioner William Bratton attended a mass for the two fallen officers at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York late Saturday, a number of officers turned their backs to the mayor.

Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot dead on Saturday inside a patrol car in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood.

In a statement to union members, Edward Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association of some 11,000 active or retired New York police officers, said that the blood of the two officers is clearly on the hands of the New York City mayor.

The row between the city hall and the police started when officers began criticizing de Blasio and police commissioner for being too sympathetic against peaceful demonstrators in the wake of anti-police brutality protests across the country.