Memory of fallen officer lives on in painting

Suffolk County Police Officer Glen Ciano, 45, will be memorialized not in his blue uniform, but in his off-the-job moments - wearing nautical shorts and sunglasses and relaxing as he rode the ocean waves, said his wife Susan Ciano, who agreed this week to have a Brooklyn artist paint her husband's portrait.

"I'm very happy to have this done - to have him painted is wonderful," said Ciano, who showed favorite photographs of her husband as she met Wednesday with artist Jodi Reznik at her Midwood studio.

Glen Ciano, 45, a 22-year veteran assigned to the Second Precinct in Huntington, was killed in February when an alleged drunken driver rammed Ciano's cruiser while the officer was on a call to assist another officer at a traffic stop.

"The painting will put him closer to us and everything in our home," Susan Ciano said of her husband of 24 years. "I'm sure the painting will bring out his personality."

"We liked the water. We had a camper and would go out to Wildwood, New Jersey, on the spur of the moment. He would say, 'The lawn can wait. Let's go.' That's the type of guy he was," said Ciano, smiling as she showed photographs of her husband sailing off Shelter Island and Newport, R.I.

Reznik has been painting portraits of fallen police officers for more than a year and giving the portraits to their families.

"We can't be passive about these fallen officers and say 'It's their job and they died in the line of duty.' We have to remember it was their job to protect us," she said. "We have to keep their memories alive."

The first portrait of a police officer that Reznik painted was that of NYPD Officer Russell Timoshenko, who was killed in 2007 when he and his partner stopped an SUV during in Brooklyn. Timoshenko was shot in the face and died five days later.