Groton Town police officers who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their brethren at the weekend funeral of a slain New York City officer said Sunday their participation in the event was heartbreaking but also a source of pride.

Five members of the Groton Town force attended Saturday’s service for Rafael Ramos, one of the two NYPD officers murdered Dec. 20 in Brooklyn. Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu, were shot as they sat in their squad car by an assailant who later killed himself.

Representatives of the Groton City, New London, Norwich and Waterford police departments also were among the more than 20,000 officers from around the country and the world who attended the funeral in Queens.

“We wanted to show solidarity,” Groton Town Officer John Doucette said. “It runs deeper than just one department. If you’re wearing a uniform anywhere in the United States, you’re part of a thin blue line.”

On their own time, Doucette and fellow Officers Chris Hoffman, Kyle LoPriore, James Bonanno and Richard Sawyer traveled in a department cruiser to New York Friday evening, spent the night in a hotel and got up early Saturday to make their way to the site of the funeral, which was held at Christ Tabernacle Church.

“We did this without hesitation to honor the ultimate sacrifice that Officer Ramos and Officer Liu made,” Doucette, 33, wrote in an email. “Anytime an officer loses his life, it is tragic. But when two officers are intentionally hunted down and murdered while sitting in their cruiser eating dinner, not because of anything other than the uniform they wear and what they represent, it is unfathomably heartbreaking.”

Sawyer said he was touched when NYPD officers thanked a group that included the Groton Town officers for their show of support.

He said brotherhood was one of the things that drew him to police work.

“I started when I was 42,” Sawyer, now 48, said. “I had life experience, I had traveled the world. I could have gone in any direction, but I was looking for a reason to be proud of what I do at the end of every day. In this job, there are highs and lows. You’re vilified in the press sometimes, which I understand, but you know you’re part of something bigger than yourself.”

Hoffman, 32, who took a vacation day Saturday, described the scene in the vicinity of the church as “jaw-dropping.”

“Back where we were you couldn’t see anything but a sea of police officers and members of the New York City Fire Department,” he said. “I come from a family of police officers and I’ve been to other police funerals, but I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

He said he joined many of the officers in the crowd in turning his back toward Bill de Blasio, the New York City mayor who appeared on giant screens eulogizing Ramos. The mayor had touched off controversy weeks earlier with remarks that many NYPD members found overly sympathetic to anti-police protesters following police involvement in the deaths of suspects in Ferguson, Mo., and on Staten Island.

“We’re removed from it (the controversy) but we wanted to show solidarity with our fellow officers,” Hoffman said.

It appeared a majority of those in the crowd at the funeral turned their backs to de Blasio, the Groton Town officers said.

“You felt sad for everything that has happened,” Hoffman said, summing up the emotions he felt Saturday. “But you just felt proud to be there standing next to everybody. We were all there for the same reason.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck