Hundreds Attend Wake of Boston Officer Found Dead in Snowstorm

Feb. 7, 2022

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was among those who turned out for the wake of Officer John O'Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the department who died after leaving a Canton bar during a nor’easter Jan. 29.

By Cassie McGrath

Source masslive.com

Hundreds of people, including police officers and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, attended a wake for John O’Keefe Sunday, the Boston police officer who was found dead in the snow outside a Canton home on Jan. 29.

Relatives and friends were invited to attend visiting hours on 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree, according to the obituary.

A procession of officers took O’Keefe’s body into the church at around 5:30 p.m., WCVB reported, with a bagpipe band playing outside.

Wu told the TV station that he will be missed.

“We’re devastated by Officer John O’Keefe’s tragic passing,” she reportedly said in a statement. “As we commemorate his dedicated service to our city, my thoughts are with Officer O’Keefe’s family, friends and colleagues at Boston Police.”

O’Keefe was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and took over care of his niece and nephew after the sudden death of his sister and brother-in-law. A GoFundMe was created to help support the children. It has raised $253,547 as of Monday morning.

He was “a devoted son, brother, uncle, godfather, cousin, friend,” who was “loved deeply by his family and was primarily devoted to and the guardian of his niece and nephew,” a post on the GoFundMe page said.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday at 11:30 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Burial will follow at Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree.

O’Keefe died after leaving Waterfall Bar in Canton with his girlfriend, Karen Read, 41, early the morning of Jan. 29 during a nor’easter. Authorities claim she hit O’Keefe while dropping him off at a friend’s house and attempting a three-point turn.

She started to become worried that Read had not returned home, prosecutors said, so she and two friends returned to where she dropped him off and they found him in the snow outside the Canton house, bruised, cut and bleeding. O’Keefe was then taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Last Wednesday, police arrested Read and charged her with motor vehicle homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death. She was released on $50,000 bail.

One of her friends told investigators that Read questioned aloud whether she may have hit O’Keefe. Court documents also claimed that Read told another friend that she had drank so much that she did not remember the night before. The friend said she believed Read was still intoxicated when morning arrived.

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