Boston police remember fallen officers at annual memorial

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

At Sunday’s annual Boston Police Relief Association memorial service for deceased officers, Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel P. Linskey made special mention of three active-duty members of the department who died in the last year.

Officer Fabio Cabrera, Officer Victor W. Everett and Detective George P. Foley were not killed in the line of duty, but Linskey said that in a sense, they died “from the line of duty,” with the stress of police work taking a toll on their health, as it does for many officers.

“We will always stand by our officers and their families,” Linskey said during the service Sunday morning at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan.

The three men were among the 82 officers who died in the past year -- the rest were retired at the time of their passing -- and Commissioner Edward F. Davis said their legacy is an inspiration for the department.

“This organization was built upon sacrifice and service, and it’s a tradition that will continue long into the future,” he said.

The ceremony included a procession of current and retired officers, music from the Boston Police Gaelic Column, and prayers from the Rev. John J. Connolly and Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff.

Linskey noted that the department recently marked the place in Kenmore Square where Officer John J. Gallagher was fatally shot on May 25, 1962 while responding to an early morning burglar alarm at a bank.

Seventy-seven officers have been killed in the line of duty in the department’s history, and Linskey said the city is erecting signs at the sites of the deaths that include the names of the fallen “so that future officers and citizens will always be reminded” of their sacrifice.

Superintendent William Evans read the names of the officers who died in the last year, and drum taps followed the recitation of each name.

Marilyn Nolan, of Lexington, attended in remembrance of her father, retired Sergeant John J. Nolan, who died in February at the age of 92.

“It was very moving,” she said, recalling that she attended the service often as a child. “I’m glad they still have this. I think it means a lot.”