Photo: Sam Doran/SHNS
BOSTON (State House News Service) - Family members, police officers, and elected officials gathered in the newly-renovated park next to the State House on Wednesday to solemnly unveil 13 new names -- some dating back 115 years -- on the state's Law Enforcement Memorial.
Trooper Tamar Anoush Bucci is the most recently fallen officer to have their name join the list. A 2020 graduate of the State Police academy, she was killed less than two years later when an oil tanker struck her cruiser on I-93 in Stoneham.
Gov. Maura Healey spoke of a recent police academy graduation she witnessed, and noted that those officers took "the same oath that every officer whose name is written on this memorial took."
Then, the governor paused -- for more than 10 seconds -- before recalling Bucci's graduation ceremony.
"I was at Tamar's graduation. I never would have imagined -- that just a short time -- we would lose her," Healey said, taking lengthy pauses as her voice choked with emotion. "Or that I'd find myself in this capacity as governor, at this memorial, where she will be inducted, and her name will be read."
Earlier Wednesday, in the House Chamber, representatives admitted new legislation (HD 4225) that would name an overpass in Bucci's memory on Route 28 in Stoneham.
A number of guests in the audience wore T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing the surname of Lawrence Police Officer Jacob Eyssi, who died in 1993 several years after he was seriously injured in the line of duty. The Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker approved a bill in 2021 that officially recognized Eyssi as "an officer killed in the line of duty."
Lt. Gov. Kimberley Driscoll, a former Salem mayor, told the crowd in Ashburton Park that "we have a big job ahead of us to fill the ranks in our departments in the coming years."
"We know we need to let our young people know that law enforcement is not only a good career, it's one of the noblest callings that exist. Working every day in service to your fellow neighbors," Driscoll said. "That's the truth this memorial speaks, and each of the names inscribed on it affirms."
In addition to Bucci and Eyssi, the fallen officers recognized Wednesday were: Patrolman William Ahern (Boston PD, end of watch 1918), Officer Charles Alexander Christie (Dartmouth PD, 1966), Sergeant Harold Collins (Metropolitan Police, 2012), Patrolman Edward Day (Boston PD, 1918), Patrolman Joseph Francis Ebelein (Boston PD, 1918), Patrolman John Fitzgerald (Boston PD, 1908), Officer Frederick Louis Forni (Saugus PD, 2021), Patrolman Frederick Joseph Gibney (Boston PD, 1918), Officer Loi Hu Ha (UMass Memorial Medical Center PD, 2021), Patrolman Lawrence Nagle (Boston PD, 1918), and Patrolman Peter Neary (Boston PD, 1918).
"I never take for granted what it is they are doing, each day and every day," Healey said of law enforcement officers. "Because you never know what might happen."
Written By Sam Doran/SHNS
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