TO SOME FOLKS, John Pawlowski was always just “Johnny Boy” — the tall, handsome, quick-witted Northeast Philadelphia guy who had law enforcement in his blood.
His friends said he always flashed his trademark smile, even as the years wore on and he grew from a wiry kid who chased his brothers on Parkwood Manor ballfields into a husband, expectant father and veteran Philadelphia police officer.
Now, Pawlowski is simply another fallen hero whose promise was snuffed out far too early by a heartless criminal.
More than 1,000 of Pawlowski’s friends, loved ones and fellow cops crammed into St. Anselm Church in Northeast Philadelphia last night to pay tribute to Pawlowski, who was gunned down Friday night in Logan.
Scores of people spilled out onto the church’s front steps and side hallways, desperate to share their grief and make sense of the latest tragedy to haunt the Philadelphia Police Department.
Pawlowski, 25, was the seventh cop to be killed in the line of duty since 2006.
“It’s a real tragedy,” said Rob Raby, a longtime friend who drove past King of Prussia Friday night to pick up one of Pawlowski’s brothers and ride him back to the city.
“He was a good kid. They had a tight-knit family. This hurts all of us,” Raby said.
Pawlowski, whose father, John Sr., is a retired police lieutenant, and whose brother, Robert, is a corporal who works in the police radio room, joined the force at age 19.
He first went to the 6th District, at 11th and Winter streets, where he worked with Capt. Brian Korn. “He was a quiet, unassuming guy. He didn’t let his hair down too much, but he had a great sense of humor and made his friends crack up,” Korn said.
Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike Walton worked the overnight shift in the 6th District when Pawlowski arrived. “He became my special project,” Walton said. “He was a good kid, but I had to enforce on him the responsibilities of the job and the fact that there were dangers to it.”
Pawlowski was still given to youthful flights of fancy. “Sometimes his uniform would be askew, or his face wouldn’t be totally shaved,” Walton said. And when the Eagles reached the Super Bowl, Pawlowski and several pals drove down to Jacksonville, Fla., to try and sneak into the big game. They forgot to tell Walton.
“He was supposed to be working that night,” Walton chuckled. “But he looked at me with those big puppy dog eyes and I thought, what could I do?”
Slowly but surely, he grew into a solid cop, Korn said.
Last year, he asked to be transferred to the 35th District, at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, the same district where Officer Chuck Cassidy was gunned down on Oct. 31, 2007.
Pawlowski wanted to be with his “best friend” Officer Mark Klein, said Capt. John McCloskey, the commander of the 35th. Klein was with Pawlowski Friday night when, police said, Rasheed Scruggs opened fire at Broad and Olney.
Pawlowski’s murder is equally shattering to his family, who were among the mourners — including Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Mayor Nutter — at St. Anselm last night.
Robert Pawlowski read a short statement after the mass let out, asking city residents to pray for the family, particularly for John’s wife, Kim, and their unborn child. Pawlowski’s wife is five months pregnant.
“It was helpful to have this service tonight,” said Nutter, who noted that the past year has been hard on the city and the Police Department.
Marge Raby, another family friend, noted how close the Pawlowski family was — particularly having suffered through the loss of John’s mother, Renee, to illness many years ago. John and his older brothers, Robert, Christopher and Vincent, banded together to watch out for their younger sister, Lauren.
"The highest compliment I can give ‘Johnny Boy’ is to say he was a good cop,” said Walton. “The last time I saw him, I asked him if he was behaving himself. He said, ‘Yeah sarge. You would be proud of me.’ And you know what? We are.”
A viewing will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday at the John F. Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Road.
Services will be Friday at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
His friends said he always flashed his trademark smile, even as the years wore on and he grew from a wiry kid who chased his brothers on Parkwood Manor ballfields into a husband, expectant father and veteran Philadelphia police officer.
Now, Pawlowski is simply another fallen hero whose promise was snuffed out far too early by a heartless criminal.
More than 1,000 of Pawlowski’s friends, loved ones and fellow cops crammed into St. Anselm Church in Northeast Philadelphia last night to pay tribute to Pawlowski, who was gunned down Friday night in Logan.
Scores of people spilled out onto the church’s front steps and side hallways, desperate to share their grief and make sense of the latest tragedy to haunt the Philadelphia Police Department.
Pawlowski, 25, was the seventh cop to be killed in the line of duty since 2006.
“It’s a real tragedy,” said Rob Raby, a longtime friend who drove past King of Prussia Friday night to pick up one of Pawlowski’s brothers and ride him back to the city.
“He was a good kid. They had a tight-knit family. This hurts all of us,” Raby said.
Pawlowski, whose father, John Sr., is a retired police lieutenant, and whose brother, Robert, is a corporal who works in the police radio room, joined the force at age 19.
He first went to the 6th District, at 11th and Winter streets, where he worked with Capt. Brian Korn. “He was a quiet, unassuming guy. He didn’t let his hair down too much, but he had a great sense of humor and made his friends crack up,” Korn said.
Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike Walton worked the overnight shift in the 6th District when Pawlowski arrived. “He became my special project,” Walton said. “He was a good kid, but I had to enforce on him the responsibilities of the job and the fact that there were dangers to it.”
Pawlowski was still given to youthful flights of fancy. “Sometimes his uniform would be askew, or his face wouldn’t be totally shaved,” Walton said. And when the Eagles reached the Super Bowl, Pawlowski and several pals drove down to Jacksonville, Fla., to try and sneak into the big game. They forgot to tell Walton.
“He was supposed to be working that night,” Walton chuckled. “But he looked at me with those big puppy dog eyes and I thought, what could I do?”
Slowly but surely, he grew into a solid cop, Korn said.
Last year, he asked to be transferred to the 35th District, at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, the same district where Officer Chuck Cassidy was gunned down on Oct. 31, 2007.
Pawlowski wanted to be with his “best friend” Officer Mark Klein, said Capt. John McCloskey, the commander of the 35th. Klein was with Pawlowski Friday night when, police said, Rasheed Scruggs opened fire at Broad and Olney.
Pawlowski’s murder is equally shattering to his family, who were among the mourners — including Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Mayor Nutter — at St. Anselm last night.
Robert Pawlowski read a short statement after the mass let out, asking city residents to pray for the family, particularly for John’s wife, Kim, and their unborn child. Pawlowski’s wife is five months pregnant.
“It was helpful to have this service tonight,” said Nutter, who noted that the past year has been hard on the city and the Police Department.
Marge Raby, another family friend, noted how close the Pawlowski family was — particularly having suffered through the loss of John’s mother, Renee, to illness many years ago. John and his older brothers, Robert, Christopher and Vincent, banded together to watch out for their younger sister, Lauren.
"The highest compliment I can give ‘Johnny Boy’ is to say he was a good cop,” said Walton. “The last time I saw him, I asked him if he was behaving himself. He said, ‘Yeah sarge. You would be proud of me.’ And you know what? We are.”
A viewing will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday at the John F. Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Road.
Services will be Friday at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
My heart goes out to his family, wife and soon-to-be-born child. Such senseless violence by the hands of these thugs.— br567rj
Comment removed.
Damn the gun laws how about keep these A"""holes in jail law and stop letting them out.- Mayor Nutter was told over a year ago, in writting, with evidence that these dangerous thugs were not being supervised or helped by State Parole. The City Council, State Legislature and Attorney General were also told and what did they do? There are over 9,000 State Offenders in Killadelphia, that are not being supervised, just monitored, at best. Scrugg's rap sheet is mild compared to what's out here among us right now. The Parole System is now geared to release 2,000 inmates per month statewide..about 600 per month for Philadelphia...violent and non-violent...we haven't started to bleed yet. Nothing changes but the Body Count. Two things we can do...encourage the poor victims to sue the State and call the FBI and the new U.S. Attorney to investigate this corruption.— John Law
- This fine officer was there to protect the citizens of Philadelphia ! His child will grow up without the protection of his father. Murder has become an accepted way of life in Philly. Of 1,500,000 people living in Philly, 348 got murdered! This is over 3 times the National Average! The boundary to kill a cop has been crossed 8 times in less than 3 years. We even accept innocent children getting shot on their way to school. In comparison to NY, a population of over 8,000,000 people 597 were murdered. Can someone figure it out that all the citizens of "Brotherly Love are responsible for the weak leadership? We need to band together now and demand more fire and police protection in this city, not less. We need more violent crime task forces in these areas to restore order, less lenient judges, Instead of the Mayor having town meetings for people's reaction to "how he decided to cut services to protect us" we need to band together and have meetings to demand a plan of action to stop the outrageous problem of violent crime in Philly and the killing of our police officers!— americangirl
- There is to be a hearing in Harrisburg on measures to halt the revolving door in PA as other states have already done, but scant coverage of that is in these local Philly papers. The only mention in in the middle of an article titled that the mother of the killer is sorry, and finishes with the same old tired crime apologists that have been discredited by the sentencing reform that achieved long term crime reduction in other states.— CleanupPhilly
- "The state House Judiciary Committee had scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider how best to protect citizens from repeat violent offenders. But committee members postponed the hearing in the wake of Pawlow-ski's (sic) killing." No info on the next hearing date, no info on what is to be considered. This is obvious skew to disguise coverage of hearings that could result in changes the paper has stated it disagrees with. But we desperately need mandatory minimums in PA for illegal gun crime, served consecutively, and mandatory maximums for three strike repeat violent felony offenders. Period. These are the guys who kill cops. Period. It's up to the PPD to make a showing at these hearings demanding safety for yourselves, and giving your own families reasonable peace of mind. It's not right to ask police to risk themselves a dozen times to apprehend he same repeat violent felony offender when only a few should result in time until they are no longer a potential danger to society. Remove the minimum sentencing, and give the max with repeat violent offender. Instead of 15-30 years for assault, violent robbery with gun, give 30. Very clear, very simple. Defense attorneys hate it for exactly that reason. But cops in Philly, and PA, need it to be able to live to go home.— CleanupPhilly
- It is not right to ask police to arrest the same repeat violent felon a dozen, two dozen times. That is exactly what happened in every cop killing in the city -- a repeat violent offender decided not to get re-arrested that day by killing a cop. In other states with crime stats at record lows, they've made it so that police only need to arrest a violent offender two more times, IF THAT, before they get effective life, either LWOP in some states like CA, AZ, NV, or TX, or 30 years+, until the offender is past the age of greatest recidivism, and is a senior, like VA, MD, and FL, and many other states. What state only gives a nine time violent felon five years and then paroles them? Only PA, to my understanding. Even MA is more strict, since Dukakis lost the election due to Willie Horton. Will Rendell and the Dems not be happy until they have a roster of Willie Hortonesque cop killers to make 60 seconds of their opponent's campaign commercial? Because there's already an impressive political career ending list now.— CleanupPhilly
- That quote from the DN is from the coverage quoting the cop killer's mother is not by the writers who run this blog site, btw. There was just no comment section for the article covering how bad the killer's mother feels. Contrast this with WPVI coverage that Dan Cuellar researched himself to show that Philly leads the nation in cop-killings; http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6661856&status=ok— CleanupPhilly
- Shame on you Mayor Nutter for bringing up the "gun control" issue while you have a news conference on yet another slain hero. What are you going to do about existing gun control laws that are not being enforced?— SayHello2MyLittleFriend
- Here we go again - another fine officer slain by one more career criminal. This criminal will just be one more "hero" to certain factions of the community. Very sad and no end in sight.— grace13
- There WAS a comment section in the DN earlier, re, the cop killer's mother's feelings, but the comments disappeared. Regarding this mother, it appears that perhaps she feels "bad" for Officer Pawlowski's family, but cannot grasp that her son is responsible - usual babble about the son not being a "bad" person. Families have simply got to stop excusing everything that their relatives do. You can indeed love someone, yet condemn his actions.— grace13
- sheriff joe for Police Chief!— ASU5830
- The PA Judicial system is a JOKE !!! A NINE time repeat offender out on the street...What the f**k is wrong with this picture ?? Oh that's right, the jails are "overcrowded", they are inhumane...that all BS !!! These scums are allowed out when the get parole and free to do what they please...It's a f***ing DISGRACE !!!— TheRealDeal
- his momma and sisters say he was a GOOD boy. Not like him at all...........same old, same old. Dead Police Officer, Good boy, not like him. Does the story ever change! Keep them in prison, but they say prison is where they are converting to radical muslim jihad. their goal when released is to kill a cop. dave schratweiser and phila magazine completely covered this new phenomen across the country— mokey1057
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About The PhillyConfidential team
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
---
Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
---
Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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