Fallen officers memorialized: Worcester Police Officer Enmanuel 'Manny' Familia added to state memorial

BOSTON — Worcester Police Officer Enmanuel "Manny" Familia: His was among the 394 names read at the 33rd annual Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation ceremony held Friday outside the Statehouse to honor the state's fallen men and women of law enforcement.

Familia was one of seven officers from Worcester whose name was read, and it resounded as it echoed off the Statehouse walls surrounding Ashburton Memorial Park, the location of the Massachusetts memorials dedicated to those law enforcement officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty.

Familia, 38, a five-year veteran of the department, died June 4, 2021. Familia and several of his fellow officers attempted to rescue three teenagers who were struggling to swim in the pond at Green Hill Park. Both Familia and the teenager, Troy Love, 14, visiting Worcester from Virginia with his family, perished.

“We’re working through it,” said his sister, Jessica, who attended the ceremony with two other members of her family and Worcester Police Family Liaison Officer Rebeka Mailea.

Words, Jessica said through Mailea, could not describe what the family was feeling.

“Bittersweet,” said state Rep. Thomas Walsh, D-Peabody, who was in attendance Friday.

In his remarks, Walsh contrasted the immense pride families feel that the sacrifice of their loved one, and their own sacrifice, is being recognized. And how families struggle with the sorrow they feel at their loss.

“They will be remembered in perpetuity,” Walsh promised the families and friends, the colleagues who gathered at the ceremony.

Some names date back to 1886

On Friday, the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation carried out the memorialization induction of 21 officers, including Familia, whose names were added to the impressive granite memorial.

Among the other names memorialized were 12 from the Boston Police Department, with some dating back to the 19thcentury and added this year after researchers discovered they had died in the line of duty from injuries incurred during an arrest, from being kicked in the head by a horse, and from smoke inhalation.

Other, more recent names, include five who died from complications from COVID-19: Officer Jose V. Fontanez (Boston, 2020), Detective John D. Songy (Rutland, 2020), Officer John M. Borges (Taunton, 2020), Detective Sgt. Stephen R. Desfosses (Norton, 2021), and Sgt. Michael Patrick Cassidy (New Bedford, 2021).

Two officers, Allan Foss “Aldo” Ray (Malden, 2014) and Trooper Thomas William Devlin, (2020) both died several years after incurring injuries in the line of duty: Ray while trying to arrest a man in 2012 and Devlin who was struck as he stood on the side of the road next to the motorist he had just pulled over in 2018. Neither died immediately and succumbed to those injuries years later.

Baker offers condolences, thanks

Gov. Charlie Baker offered his gratitude and condolences to those gathered. And his thanks.

“You gave us a chance to honor your lost loved ones, honor them and their sacrifice,” Baker said, noting that it is a poor nation that forgets its heroes.

“Time and time again, we gather at this memorial, and the one across the park, to take a moment to ensure to family, friends, colleagues, that those who lost a loved one know that we don’t, and will not, forget,” Baker told the hundred or so people gathered at the memorial in the prewinter chill.

Equally as important as remembering the sacrifice of those who die in the line of duty, Baker said, is remembering that men and women get up every morning, don a uniform, go to work and face situations every day that could end with their names on the wall.

Men and women in uniform every day live through what could be a tragic event and turn it into just another day “because they are good at what they do,” Baker said.

They take their knowledge, experience and training and deescalate the situation, “take the oxygen out of it,” and it ends peacefully, quietly. “It doesn’t make the news, it’s not that interesting, it’s not talked about, it’s not extraordinary,” Baker said.

A career of service

It’s just another day for the men and women in uniform who serve without fanfare. And thanks to their selfless and brave acts, many tragedies are averted every day.

“I hope the commonwealth deeply appreciates it,” said Baker, who concluded his remarks by calling law enforcement officers “our heroes. We do remember and we will step up for you because you step up for us.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey, attending in her role as the state’s attorney general, assured those gathered that the sacrifices they made are not in vail: “they live on in our hearts forever.”

Healey noted that an officer does not serve alone; their whole family serves, noting they serve with courage and strength and the fear that one day, the officer will not return home.

“As attorney general, I thank you for sharing your loved ones, your sacrifice,” Healey said. “I will always stand with you.”

That commitment, she said, stretches beyond the afternoon ceremony, beyond the borders of Ashburton Park.

“I will always support the men and women in uniform who protect us,” Healey assured the law enforcement community.

Before the conclusion of the ceremony, volunteers read the names of the fallen; including the six others from Worcester: Earnest F. Brunette Jr., Robert R. Hazelhurst, Peter J. Kneeland, Sgt. John McGinn, Leon F. Moody and Sgt. Michael A. Towner.

Worcester loss first in many years

One police officer attending from Worcester said the department had not suffered such a loss in several years until Familia died in the line of duty.

On the tragic June day, Familia was recovered about an hour after the initial 911 call was made at 1:35 p.m. and transported to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Familia's family, his widow, Jennifer, and their two children, Jayla and Jovan, were initially denied state death benefits because drowning was not considered an in the line of duty death. However, legislators worked to change the acceptable causes and afford the family his full pension.

Familia was born in the Dominican Republic and traveled with his family to the United States as a child. Before joining the Worcester police, he served as an officer at Clark University and his alma mater, Quinsigamond Community College, and for the town of Oakham.

Family members created The Manny 267 Foundation to honor his memory. The foundation is dedicated to ensuring all police cruisers in the city are stocked with rescue tubes.

The foundation is also partnered with the YMCA to train Worcester police in water rescue techniques, as well as to provide swim lessons and water survival skills to local and eventually all youths.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Line of duty police deaths, Worcester's Enmanuel "Manny" Familia honored by state officials