Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe Remembered At Funeral In Braintree
BRAINTREE (CBS) – Colleagues lined the street outside a Braintree church Monday during the funeral for Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, who was found dead in the snow outside a home in Canton last month.
The funeral Mass for O'Keefe got underway Monday morning at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree, where he grew up.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and hundreds of others paid their respects at his wake Sunday.
O'Keefe will be buried Monday at Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree.
Officer O'Keefe was 46 years old and had been with the Boston Police Department for 16 years.
His girlfriend Karen Read is charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a collision causing death in the January 29 incident. She pleaded not guilty to all charges and is free on $50,000 bail.
Prosecutors said Read and O'Keefe, who was off-duty, had been to two bars early Saturday morning and left to go to a home on Fairview Road home in Canton. Read told investigators she dropped O'Keefe off around 12:45 a.m., made a three-point turn and left, but did not see O'Keefe go inside the house.
According to her attorney, she became worried around 4:30 a.m. because O'Keefe hadn't come home so she called him several times but got no response. He was later found dead in the snow outside the Canton house.
"I've never seen so many people pay their respects," said Grace Walling of Braintree. "He was well loved. Well liked by all."
O'Keefe graduated from Braintree High School and Northeastern University. He also earned a master's degree in criminal justice from UMass Lowell. His family said he raised his niece and nephew when his sister and her husband died.