Services Set For East Fishkill Police Officer Killed In Line Of Duty

EAST FISHKILL, NY — Services have been set for the East Fishkill Police Department officer who was killed in the line of duty Monday on the Taconic State Parkway.

The wake for Officer Daniel P. DiDato, 47, will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at John Jay High School, 2012 Route 52 in Hopewell Junction.

His funeral will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Columba Church, 835 Main St. in Hopewell Junction. Entombment will follow at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

DiDato died Monday when his patrol car went off the roadway in the area of mile marker 36.2 on the parkway and struck a tree.

He was on duty and traveling to Westchester Medical Center to continue a car versus pedestrian crash investigation that happened near the East Fishkill police station. He was the sole occupant of his patrol car and was taken to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

DiDato served with the Town of East Fishkill Police Department since January 2005. However, his law enforcement career started in December 2001 with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

Acting East Fishkill Chief of Police Lt. Derrick Cuccia said on Facebook that DiDato “was everything that encompassed a great police officer and friend. He was genuine, smart, courageous, tough and witty.

“The Town of East Fishkill Police Department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer DiDato’s family and friends, and mourns the loss of one of our own,” Cuccia said.

According to his obituary on the McHoul Funeral Home website, DiDato was born in 1976 in the Bronx and he and his family moved to Hopewell Junction in 1985.

He graduated from John Jay Senior High School in 1994 and Dutchess Community College in 2001, where he received an associate degree in Liberal Arts.

DiDato is survived by his parents, two brothers and many cousins.