Officers, elected officials, friends and family gathered Thursday morning for the funeral of the New York City police officer fatally shot by a fellow policeman last week.

The ceremony for Omar Edwards began following a procession of the casket to Our Lady of Victory Church in Brooklyn. About 800 mourners packed the church and hundreds more filled the street to listen to the funeral on a loudspeaker.

Edwards, 25, was gunned down by another officer while chasing a robbery suspect in East Harlem last Thursday. Police say he was in plain clothes and chasing the man with his gun drawn.

Governor David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly all delivered eulogies, describing him as a man who loved his job, his family, and the New York Giants.

"Becoming a police officer was truly a dream come true for Omar and he planned to make the most of it," Bloomberg said. "Omar's passion for policing was well-known to the other officers and his impact response team as well. They'll tell you that in any situation, no matter how tense or in any chase, no matter where it led, you could rely on Omar without a second thought."

The mayor said Edwards will be posthumously promoted to detective, increasing the death benefits to his family. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

"We'll leave here feeling that hope will triumph over experience, that dreams are more important than reality, that faith inevitably will outlast history, and that love is stronger than death," said the governor.

City leaders expressed hope that the lessons learned from the tragedy would prevent anything like it from happening again.

"Last week, as he left work, Omar responded to a criminal act – a man breaking in to his car," said the police commissioner. "The crime set into motion a tragic chain of events, which we will do everything in our power to understand."

"Omar Edwards was everything we could hope for in a police officer – conscientious, hardworking, driven to learn about policing from the time that he was a child," said the police commissioner.

Thoughts were also with Officer Andrew Dunton, who shot Edwards.

"Officer Dunton, who now lives to regret the fatal results from what he did in the line of duty, he, too, needs our compassion and our prayers," said Reverend Paul Jarvis, pastor of Our Lady of Victory.

According to the New York Times, a preliminary report is shedding some light on what happened immediately after the shooting. The paper says police on the scene did not know Edwards was an officer until they discovered he was wearing a distinctive police academy T-shirt, and then found his shield.

The incident has raised questions about race, since Dunton is white.

Meanwhile, the Police Department says it is trying to learn from the incident and refocus the way it trains officers.

NY1 was given a look Wednesday at training exercises designed to better prepare officers for any interactions they may have with armed, undercover and plainclothes policemen.

"We attempt to simulate that as closely and realistically as possible," explained Anthony Maida of the NYPD Firearms and Tactics division. "But, in the real world, there are more civilians, there are cars driving by, there are people hanging out windows, so it's a very difficult situation."

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there are also plans to update the officer training video to include more focus on such encounters.

The increased training comes on the heels of calls for a federal investigation into Edwards' death.

The Manhattan district attorney said Wednesday that he is confident his office can fairly investigate the shooting.