In a solemn program marked by tears and tribute, Governor Maura Healey and State Police Colonel John Mawn Jr., among other dignitaries, today honored police officers from Massachusetts who gave the full measure of devotion in service to others at the Commonwealth’s annual Law Enforcement Memorial ceremony. Thirteen officers who made the ultimate sacrifice were added to the Memorial this year, including Massachusetts State Police Trooper Tamar A. Bucci and Metropolitan Police Sergeant Harold J. Collins.
Trooper Bucci was killed in the line of duty on March 4, 2022, after her cruiser was struck by a tanker truck as she attempted to pull over to aid a stopped motorist on Interstate 93 in Stoneham. She was 34 and had been a State Trooper for just under two years.
Sergeant Collins died on May 31, 2012, at age 92, from post-polio syndrome, with which he became afflicted years after he contracted poliomyelitis while administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a seven-year-old near-drowning victim on November 7, 1955, at Lee Pool in Boston’s West End. Sergeant Collins revived the young girl, who was subsequently found to be a carrier of the polio virus. Sergeant Collins contracted the virus and suffered the effects of the disease over the years, and retired from active duty in 1979 after a 29-year career. The Metropolitan Police were merged into the Massachusetts State Police in 1992.
Sergeant Collins’ daughter, Marion Fletcher, is a Lieutenant with the Massachusetts State Police who commands the State Police-Medford Barracks — the station where Trooper Bucci was assigned at the time of her death.
Speaking to the families of the honored Trooper and Officers, Governor Healey recalled attending Trooper Bucci’s graduation from the MSP’s 85th Recruit Training Troop in 2020.
“I would never have imagined that in just a short time we would lose her, or that I would find myself in this capacity as Governor at this Memorial where she will be inducted and her name will be read,” Governor Healey said.
The Governor noted the heroic calling to protect others that all 13 honorees heard.
“They all had one thing in common and that was to keep the peace that makes our lives possible, to protect our freedoms, our way of life,” she said. “To do so, they showed up every day; they were role models and helpers, who devoted their lives to their communities.”
The 13 new names are added to those of more than a hundred officers already enshrined on the Memorial, which is located at Ashburton Park outside the State House. Wednesday’s gathering was the 34th annual such ceremony.
Also added to the Memorial this year were Boston Police Patrolmen John J. Fitzgerald, Joseph Francis Ebelein, Lawrence J. Nagle, Peter Neary, Edward M. Day, Frederick Joseph Gibney, and William F. Ahern, Dartmouth Police Officer Charles Alexander Christie, Lawrence Police Officer Jacob G. Eyssi, Saugus Police Officer Frederick Louis Forni and UMass Memorial Medical Center Police Officer Loi Hu Ha.
Please watch the MSP’s social sites for more coverage of the memorial in coming days.
