Line of Duty Deaths

Officers in uniform carrying flags

Line of Duty Deaths

The Department will forever honor the 43 fallen heroes who died while in the line of duty.

 

Augustus T. Wright
Keeper
Clinton State Prison
July 11, 1861
Mr. Wright was struck with an iron bar during an attack at the iron ore processing plant when seven incarcerated individuals escaped from the prison.

 

Edwin A. Craft
Keeper
Sing Sing State Prison
March 18, 1869
Mr. Craft was escorting five incarcerated individuals to work in the mess hall when he was overpowered and strangled during an escape from the prison.

 

Samuel Calvert
Keeper
New York House of Refuge
March 1, 1872
Mr. Calvert was securing incarcerated individuals in their housing area when an incarcerated individual stabbed him in the leg, which severed his femoral artery causing his death.

 

Harry A. Casler
Keeper
Auburn State Prison
February 1, 1877
Mr. Casler was supervising an incarcerated individual work detail outside of the prison when an incarcerated individual delivered a fatal blow to his head with a shovel.

 

George McKelvey
Principal Keeper
Elmira Reformatory
May 6, 1880
Mr. McKelvey entered a cell to handcuff an incarcerated individual for a disciplinary infraction when he was fatally stabbed in the heart with a knife.

 

Archibald W. Benedict
Prison Guard
Auburn State Prison
January 9, 1901
Mr. Benedict was supervising 17 incarcerated individuals in the cloth shop when he was struck with an iron bar and then shot with his service revolver.

 

Dennis O’Brien
Officer
Clinton State Prison
January 11, 1904
Mr. O’Brien was posted to a railway station in search of two escaped incarcerated individuals. As he approached a train on a siding to search it, he was struck by a passing train and killed instantly.

 

Nellie Wicks
Head Attendant Matteawan
State Hospital
September 27, 1906
Miss Wicks had been employed at the hospital for the criminally insane one year when she was stabbed by an incarcerated individual. She had planned to leave the hospital in four days to enroll in nursing school.

 

Daniel J. McCarthy
Officer
Sing Sing State Prison
June 22, 1916
Mr. McCarthy was shot to death by an escaping incarcerated individual who was awaiting execution. The incarcerated individual was recaptured and executed eight days later.

 

Dr. Charles H. North
Superintendent
Dannemora State Hospital
December 12, 1917
Dr. North, Superintendent for 13 years at the hospital for the criminally insane, had finished speaking with an incarcerated individual when the incarcerated individual stabbed him in the back with a chisel.

 

Charles J. Gunter
Officer
Clinton State Prison
April 17, 1919
Mr. Gunter, assigned to the prison TB hospital, was struck on the head during an attempted escape by two incarcerated individuals.

 

Joseph A. Weitekamp
Shop Foreman
Clinton State Prison
March 29, 1922
Mr. Weitekamp fought a fire alone in the shop until staff responded. He died from burns and smoke inhalation.

 

Jesse Christian
Guard
Institution for Defective Delinquents
July 24, 1923
Mr. Christian was a guard at the institution, later known as Eastern Correctional Facility, when he was struck on the head during a mess hall riot.

 

James B. Durnin
Principal Keeper
Auburn State Prison
November 17, 1927
Mr. Durnin was attacked and fatally stabbed by an incarcerated individual with an improvised knife as he stood outside the mess hall door.

 

George A. Durnford
Principal Keeper
Auburn State Prison
December 11, 1929
Armed incarcerated individuals took the prison’s warden hostage in an escape plot. Mr. Durnford confronted the rioters and was shot.


Edward B. Beckwith
Principal Keeper
Auburn State Prison
March 5, 1930
Mr. Beckwith was in the mess hall when he was suddenly attacked and stabbed seven times by an incarcerated individual.

 

Daniel J. Nickerson
Guard
Clinton State Prison
March 25, 1934
An incarcerated individual stabbed Mr. Nickerson to death when he came to assist other Guards under attack.

 

James H. Donovan
Keeper
Auburn State Prison
March 21, 1940
Mr. Donovan was killed by an incarcerated individual who struck him on the head with an eight-pound iron handle from a machine.

 

John Hartye
Guard
Sing Sing State Prison
April 14, 1941
Three incarcerated individuals, armed with smuggled revolvers, shot Mr. Hartye during a morning escape from the prison hospital.

 

William E. Quinn
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
September 11, 1971
Mr. Quinn was struck on the head and killed by incarcerated individuals during the first day of the Attica riot.

 

Edward T. Cunningham
Correction Sergeant
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Cunningham died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

John J. D’Arcangelo, Jr.
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. D’Arcangelo died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Elmer G. Hardie
Industrial Training Supervisor
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Hardie died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Herbert W. Jones, Jr.
Industrial Account Clerk
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Jones died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Richard J. Lewis
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Lewis died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

John G. Monteleone
Industrial Training Supervisor
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Monteleone died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Carl W. Valone
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Valone died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Elon F. Werner
Industrial Account Clerk
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Werner died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Ronald D. Werner
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
September 13, 1971
Mr. Werner died while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.

 

Harrison W. Whalen
Correction Officer
Attica Correctional Facility
October 9, 1971
Mr. Whalen died from injuries he sustained while being held hostage by incarcerated individuals during a prison riot.


Barry Sutherland 
Parole Officer 
New York City
December 13, 1976
Mr. Sutherland, a Parole Officer with the Division of Parole and Department of Correctional Services, was shot while apprehending a parolee.

 

Nancy Vial
Food Services Cook 
Attica Correctional Facility 
August 5, 1977
Mrs. Vial had been employed less than one year when she was strangled by an incarcerated individual in the food service area.

 

Donna A. Payant
Correction Officer
Green Haven Correctional Facility
May 15, 1981
Mrs. Payant was strangled by an incarcerated individual less than one month after becoming a correction officer.

 

Raymond Rinaldi 
Parole Officer 
New York City 
May 22, 1981
Mr. Rinaldi was killed in a highway accident while driving to Rikers Island to lodge a parole violation warrant for a recently apprehended fugitive.


Claude W. Cromie
Correction Officer
Clinton Correctional Facility 
February 6, 1982
Mr. Cromie was escorting a disruptive incarcerated individual from the dayroom of a housing unit when he was assaulted and suffered a fatal heart attack.

 

Brian Rooney
Parole Officer 
New York City 
October 10, 1985
Mr. Rooney was shot and killed on a street in Queens while performing his Parole Officer duties.

 

Anthony Libertone 
Parole Officer 
Syracuse
June 12, 1986
Mr. Libertone was driving a vehicle en route to conduct field investigations when a tire fell from a truck, striking his windshield, and killing him instantly.

 

P. Michael Petrosino
Correction Officer
Auburn Correctional Facility 
October 24, 1991
Assigned to a hospital ward to guard incarcerated individuals with drug-resistant tuberculosis, Mr. Petrosino also contracted the disease and died.

 

Theodore Clark 
Parole Officer 
Elmira
April 22, 1993
Mr. Clark was on duty, driving a vehicle, when he was struck by another driver who had lost control of the vehicle.

 

Frank J. Mydlarz
Correction Officer
Great Meadow Correctional Facility
August 1, 1999
Mr. Mydlarz had assisted in subduing and escorting an incarcerated individual, following an incarcerated individual assault on staff incident in the mess hall, when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

 

Sharyn DeBose-Dover
Parole Officer 
New York City 
October 13, 1999
Ms. Debose-Dover was killed in an on-duty automobile accident on the Taconic State Parkway.

 

Jeffrey Woolson 
Parole Officer 
Syracuse
March 19, 2009
Mr. Woolson was traveling in a vehicle en route to an assignment in Oswego County when he lost control of his vehicle on an icy road, striking a tree.

 

Casimiro Pomales
Correction Officer 
Eastern New York Correctional Facility 
January 28, 2011
Mr. Pomales was transporting an incarcerated individual when the van was forced off the highway and down an embankment.