Sakonnet Bridge, Digital Signs to be Lit for Fallen Jamestown Officer

PORTSMOUTH, RI—The Sakonnet River Bridge will be lit red white and blue in honor of the late Jamestown Police Officer Ryan Bourqe, who died after a wrong-way driver crashed into his car on Interstate 95 on Monday.

The Coventry native and young officer, 24, was on his way home after completing his shift at 11 p.m. when the crash happened. He died the same day that marked his one-year anniversary with the Jamestown Police Department.

As friends and family mourn, so does the community. The Rhode Island Bridge and Turnpike Authority on Thursday said that its fiber optic signs at the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge and Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge are displaying a message in his memory and the Sakonnet River Bridge will be lit in red, white and blue.

Bourque was a graduate of Bishop Hendricken High School Class of 2009. Her attended the Rhode Island Police Academy and graduated in 2015 before joining the Jamestown Police Department. According to his obituary, along with his career in law enforcement, he was a musician, he played guitar and wrote songs. He enjoyed ice hockey, weight lifting and water sports on Johnson’s Pond in Coventry.

A Mass of Christian Burial is planned on Saturday at 1 a.m. at SS. John & Paul Church in Coventry.

The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, people send donations to the Jamestown Playground Restoration Fund in honor of Officer Ryan Bourque c/o Jamestown Police Department, 250 Conanicus Ave, Jamestown, RI 02835.

The driver of the car that struck Bourque's Dodge Charger, Dejae T. Pizarro, of Bedford, Mass., also died in the crash. He was 23.

Pizarro made a U-turn on the highway and hit Bourque's Dodge Charger head-on about 500 feet north of Exit 7 in East Greenwich, police said.