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Poughkeepsie, NY – Fallen Poughkeepsie Police officer John Falcone will be laid to rest Thursday, just six days after he was shot in the head while trying to bring a shooting suspect under arrest. WAMC's Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Greg Fry has more on how the city is preparing to honor the fallen officer...
Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik has declared Thursday A Day of Rememberance. Market Street in Poughkeepsie will be closed for 90 minutes Thursday morning, as city officials meet to travel to Falcone's funeral in Putnam County. So many of Falcone's fellow officers will be in attendance, that the city has implemented an emergency plan, where officers from other agencies will patrol the city from midnight Thursday through 8 AM Friday. Dutchess County Sheriff Adrian Anderson says they are there to help
Town of Poughkeepsie police will also help with any police details. City Police Chief Ronald Knapp thanked New York State Police officials for their work in aiding with funeral details, and with handling the thousands who have paid their respects at a Putnam County funeral home the past two days.
Knapp also announced Falcone's badge number will be retired, and that he's been given a promotion to detective in the Poughkeepsie Police Department, effective the morning of Friday, February 18th, the day of Falcone's death. He's also been awarded the force's first medal of honor. Knapp says the ribbons associated with that award were given to the city
Falcone died hours after he was shot in the head by 27-year-old Lee Welch, a Catskill man, who police say shot his own wife in a car near the city's train station Friday afternoon, then ran away from the scene with the couple's three year old child, who is believed to be with her grandparents. It was also discovered that Lee Welch's brother, Aaron Brevoort, was killed in a march 2007 incident with police in Springfield, Massachusetts. In that confrontation, police were serving Brevoort with a warrant in connection with a series of burglaries near Poughkeepsie, when he opened fire, and shot one Springfield officer in the leg.
Knapp says he intends to release more information about Friday's shooting at a later date, but says right now, he only knows about 20 percent of the circumstances surrounding the incident, due to the amount of details regarding the investigation.
Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik became emotional after talking Wednesday about the need to provide services for city residents, while also paying tribute to a fallen officer
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York will reportedly conduct the mass at Falcone's funeral Thursday.