Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – A state trooper who was shot during the hunt for one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives was a “hero in the very truest sense of the word,” Gov. George Pataki said at the lawman’s funeral Monday.
State police estimated 6,000 officers, some from such places as Canada and Michigan, attended the funeral to remember Joseph Longobardo, one of three troopers Ralph “Bucky” Phillips is suspected of shooting while on the run.
Longobardo, 32, never regained consciousness after he and another trooper were wounded in an ambush Aug. 31 as they staked out the home of Phillips’ former girlfriend. The other trooper remained in critical condition Monday.
At the funeral, on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, several speakers placed Longobardo in the company of emergency responders who died in the attacks.
“In the wake of 9/11, I think all of us are more aware of the grave dangers all our public servants experience every time they don their uniform,” said Bishop Howard Hubbard. “We have come together to mourn the passing of another fallen hero who was also a victim of a terrorist attack.”
Trooper Heath McCrindle remembered his buddy as someone who had a rough and tough exterior. But a softer side emerged after the birth of his son, Louis, now 13 months old.
Phillips escaped April 2 from a jail in Erie County and eluded police for five months, stealing cars, breaking into homes and hiding out until his capture Friday.
