Published: May 16, 2008 12:29 am            

NIAGARA COUNTY: Service honors fallen officers

With the crack of a rifle salute and the mournful trumpeting of taps, members of Niagara County law enforcement and the community honored those who have fallen in the thin blue line of duty.

The 11th annual Niagara County Interfaith Police Memorial Service was held Thursday night at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Ridge Street in the village of Lewiston.

Niagara Interfaith Chaplaincy President Richard James told the gathering that the first year a service was held, in 1998, six law enforcement officers from New York, including Buffalo Police Officer Robert McLellan, lost their lives in the line of duty.

“We promised the souls of those brave officers they would never be forgotten,” James said.

The service served as an opportunity to remember a previously unknown fallen officer from the Western New York area. Recent research by Lockport Police Officer Paul Beakman led to the discovery of the death on duty of Detective Daniel McCrea in June 1908.

McCrea, 22 at the time of his death, had spent just three months on the job with the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad Police.

“He (McCrea) was killed by five suspicious characters he had shagged out the (Buffalo Railroad) yard a short time before,” Beakman said. “They snuck back in and they ambushed him. At less than seven feet away, on top of a rail car, he was shot in the face.”

McCrea died four days later, with his family by his side.

Beakman and others said most the records of McCrea’s slaying have been lost in the countless railroad mergers of the last 100 years. However, local law enforcement officers say they will press to have McCrea’s name added to the National Police Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Those in attendance were reminded that there were 187 in the line of duty law enforcement deaths in 2007 countrywide. Already in 2008, 37 officers have lost their lives.

“Each and every time I attend a service like this, I am awestruck,” said Chaplain Ben Marino of the Town of Niagara Police Department. “This program is a celebration of life and a remembrance of those who have gone before us.”

Marino left the officers at the service with a final thought as they returned to work.

“You do not ride alone, there is always a two-man car,” Marino said. “The fallen heroes who have gone before you ride along.”

Contact reporter Rick Pfeifferat 282-2311, ext. 2252.

        

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