Mass. State Police: 'We Lost 41 of Our Own'

By CHARLENE ARSENAULT (Patch Staff)

In 1913, Patrolman Robert Stewart was patrolling Hillside Street in Milton, where he was thrown from his horse and another patrolman found him against a stone wall with a fractured skull. Stewart died at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Patrolman Charles Collins, in 1942, was killed when he was shot after trying to arrest a man who pulled a gun on another officer and carjacked his vehicle. When they went to the house in Byfield, the fleeing man fired at Collins. He was 33.

Trooper Drew Chandler passed away in 2000 from complications of Hepatitis C, which he contracted while searching a car from narcotics.

After 30 years on the job, Det. Joseph Elmer McCain of the Massachusetts State Police, was shot during a drug raid in Hyde Park. He was never able to work after the shooting and passed away in 2001 when his health deteriorated.

Trooper Ellen E. Engelhardt has served on the state police for 23 years when a drunk driver slammed into her patrol car on Route 25 in Wareham. The driver hit her at nearly 90 mph, and she was so injured that it left her in a vegetative state until she died 13 years later, 2011.

In the past year, 273 in law enforcement have lost their lives in the line of duty. Their names will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC, as part of National Police Week, which is May 10-16 this year.

As Mass. State Police reminds us, they lost 41 of their own.

Read details of the patrolmen and troopers who have served with the Massachusetts State Police, and lost their lives while serving, and Mass. State Police’s Officer Down Memorial Page. Of those, three were lost to an aircraft accident, one was animal related, eight were killed in an automobile accident, one drowned and one died in a duty related illness. One trooper died in a fire, six were killed by guns, two died of heart attacks, 13 were lost to motorcycle accidents, two were struck by vehicles and three were killed in a vehicular assault.

Massachusetts State Police reminds us on its Facebook page, “In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

Here is the events scheduled for National Police Week, at which thousands gather in DC to honor those we’ve lost.

Photo via Massachusetts State Police