Det. Brian Simonsen remembered in grave site visit on first anniversary of his death

More than a hundred friends, family members and former colleagues walked past flashing police lights down Det. Brian Simonsen Way in Jamesport on Thursday night to visit the grave of the slain NYPD detective a year after his burial.

“Today we wanted to bring everybody in Riverhead together just to celebrate his life,” his widow, Leanne Simonsen, said. “This is when we said our final goodbye to him.”

Calverton resident and NYPD Det. Brian Simonsen was killed by friendly fire on Feb. 12, 2019, while responding to a call of an attempted robbery in Richmond Hill, Queens. He was 42 years old.

Miniature black, white and blue “Blue Lives Matter” flags lined the street leading to the entrance of the Jamesport cemetery where fire trucks raised an enormous American flag toward the sky. Handheld candles glowed around his gravestone as the Rev. Anton DeWet of the Old Steeple Community Church in Aquebogue said a prayer. As the crowd dispersed, one man knelt in the darkness in front of Simonsen’s final resting place — festooned with white roses, balloons, three golf balls and a New York Giants cap — and wept on the chilly February night.

At a gathering afterward at the Jamesport firehouse, Leanne said the turnout for her husband was “amazing” but “not shocking because everybody loved him.”

Today she advocates for people to become organ donors as her husband had been, and the Detective Brian “Smiles” Simonsen Memorial Foundation has started a college scholarships for varsity athletes at Riverhead High School where he graduated.

“Organ donation, that was his last way of giving to people,” she said. “Organ donation is so important. It helps somebody walk their daughter down the aisle. It helps somebody raise their baby to a full ripe age. So be like Brian, donate those organs.”

NYPD Lt. Billy Negus, who had at one time been Simonsen’s supervisor, said he had been “just a real solid guy.”

Out of uniform, Simonsen had given Negus a hand moving from Port Jefferson Station to Mount Sinai.

“Brian was the first guy in my house to help me move,” Negus said. “It’s a sign of a true friend.”

The gathering Thursday night was emotional, Negus said.

“It just rips your heart again,” Negus said. “It just brings you right back to Feb. 12, 2019. It’s just a day we’ll never forget … the New York Police Department lost a great man.”

Childhood friend Scott Sulzer said he met Simonsen as a freshmen at Riverhead High School.

“He was an asset not only to his job but to his friends and the community,” Sulzer said.

Sulzer said he had been a confidant who had an easy way of talking to anybody.

“It’s sad to see him gone but we know he’s still over us, looking down on us,” Sulzer said.