Police and friends honor officer slain 34 years ago in East Boston
Exactly 34 years to the day after his father, a veteran police officer, was fatally shot near an East Boston street corner, Michael Halloran stood on the corner as a bronze plaque was unveiled in his father’s memory.
“It’s extremely touching,’’ Halloran, 43, of Dartmouth said. “I’m in this area quite a bit, and I know it’s going to mean a lot every time I drive by here to see the memorial that they’ve done for him.’’
Sergeant Richard F. Halloran was shot about 3:40 a.m. on Nov. 6, 1975, near the corner of Neptune Road and Bremen Street. A suspect was arrested within hours and ultimately convicted of murder.
Yesterday’s ceremony drew dozens of police officers, family members, and friends to the busy site near Route 1A, and featured bagpipers and a white-gloved police color guard. Periodically, an airplane from nearby Logan International Airport would roar overhead.
Speakers included Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis, Captain Robert Cunningham, who commands the East Boston district, and police union officials.
“He was out there making a difference every day, and our great city is a better place because of his service,’’ Menino told the crowd.
The installation of the bronze plaque on a granite column in a strip of struggling grass was spearheaded by Officer Robert Anthony, who got the idea after discussing it with a group of retired East Boston police officers.
“Today’s a day about remembering our heroes,’’ Anthony said.
Francesca Halloran, the officer’s widow, was accompanied by Michael and another son, Leonard, both of whom are firefighters. When her husband was shot, President Gerald Ford was running for reelection, the United States had barely pulled out of Vietnam, and Patty Hearst had just been captured by the FBI.
But she said her husband had been far from forgotten over the years, that the ceremony was just the latest in a series of honors.
“It’s an honor to be here on behalf of my husband, it really is. And what a tribute they gave him! And I can’t get over all the people that came here to honor him,’’ she said.
The family was also given a copy of the street sign erected above the plaque that read, “Sergeant Richard F. Halloran, Killed in the Line of Duty, November 6, 1975.’’
Halloran, 32, a patrol supervisor, was found fatally wounded, lying face up, about 10 feet from his cruiser, with his service revolver resting on his left hand. It had not been fired.
Police said he had been investigating a car parked near 464 Bremen when he was shot. He was a 1964 graduate of Somerville High School and an Army veteran. He had received an associate’s degree from Northeastern University.
He joined the Medford police in 1968 and worked there for two years before transferring to Boston.