The casket of Staff Sgt.Angel S.
Rampersad, who was killed in the ongoing war between the U.S.and Iran, is carried by NYPD officers during the funeral procession in New York on Friday, July 31.
Ryan Murphy/AP hide caption NEW YORK — When Carolina Flores saw two men in military uniforms approach her friend's house across the street, she had a feeling something was wrong.Her friend Carol Acevedo's daughter was serving in the Middle East."Once they closed the door, we just heard her screaming," Flores said.The men had come to deliver the news that 28-year-old Angel S.
Rampersad, a staff sergeant in the U.S.Army, was killed July 17 in an attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
She was one of four American soldiers killed overseas in the last month.And just like that, a faraway war hit home in Ozone Park, Queens.It's one of the most diverse places in the country.At a vigil for Rampersad Monday, dozens of neighbors from countries such as Colombia and Morocco gathered around the family's two-story home on a tree-lined street corner as the sun began to set.
They lit candles, sang and prayed as an American flag waved at half staff.First responders and community members lined the nearby sidewalks Friday to salute her flag-draped casket as it passed by, headed to funeral services at Calvary Assembly of God Church, just half a mile from Rampersad's home.Those who eulogized her said she wouldn't believe all the recognition she was receiving.
The family of Staff Sgt.Angel S.
Rampersad, aunt Judy Rackal, left, mother Carol Acevedo, center, and sister Laura Tamby, right, attend a candlelight vigil outside her home in Ozone Park, New York, on July 27.Yuki Iwamura/AP hide caption Rampersad was born in Trin...