NCPD: 2 memorial services honor slain Officer Arthur Lopez
Nassau County Police Officer Arthur Lopez was remembered on Monday — the fifth anniversary of his slaying — at two memorial services.
Lopez, 29, was shot to death in Bellerose, Queens, on Oct. 23, 2012, while trying to arrest a hit-and-run driver from Nassau County.
The first ceremony took place on Jamaica Avenue over the Cross Island Parkway in Bellerose, near the scene of the murder. That overpass has been renamed Police Officer Arthur Lopez Memorial Bridge.
The ceremony was followed by a grave site vigil at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury.
In an interview with News 12 Long Island, Nassau acting Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder noted the strong turnout in Westbury.
“We never forget our fallen brother officers,” Ryder said.
Lopez, a resident of Babylon Village, had been a police officer for eight years and was a member of the Emergency Services Unit.
Darrell Fuller of Queens is serving a sentence of life without parole for killing Lopez and another man a few minutes apart.
After shooting Lopez, Fuller got on the southbound Cross Island Parkway where he shot and killed Raymond Facey, 58, a Brooklyn construction worker, and stole his car.
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