At Phila. officer’s funeral, calls for peace

In a ritual that has become altogether too familiar, Philadelphia police Tuesday laid to rest their murdered colleague Patrick McDonald, the fourth officer to die in the line of duty in a year.

At a Funeral Mass that filled the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, the 30-year-old McDonald was remembered as an intense competitor and fitness fanatic who once captured a fleeing suspect with a flying tackle.

The eight-year veteran and member of the department's elite Highway Patrol, whose unit symbol is a set of wings, was posthumously promoted to sergeant by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey.

"Rest in peace, my friend. You take your place among all those brave men and women that have gone before you," Ramsey said of the officer, who patrolled the city's most impoverished and violent neighborhoods. "You've earned the wings of a Highway Patrol officer, and now you've earned another set of wings, the wings of an angel."

Cardinal Justin Rigali, Mayor Nutter and McDonald's family urged mourners to transform the anger unleashed by the officer's murder on Sept. 23 by a recently paroled felon into something positive.

"Denunciation and lamentation are not enough to free us from the evil of violence and repeated violations of human dignity," Rigali said during his homily. "St. Paul's injunction is so very relevant to our society: 'Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.' "

Nutter pledged to continue aggressive crime-fighting.

"All of us, let's take that sense of anger, that sense of loss, and redirect all of that energy, recommit ourselves, refocus ourselves, rededicate ourselves, to making this city a better place" he said.

While violence and homicides have decreased in the last year, the war on crime has taken a dramatic toll on the police.

McDonald's death was preceded by those of Officer Chuck Cassidy, shot at point-blank range by a robber last October; Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, gunned down by bank robbers in May; and Officer Isabel Nazario, killed last month when her patrol car was T-boned by a teenager driving a stolen vehicle.

But the upwelling of revulsion over McDonald's death was made more intense by the way he died. He was killed after a chasing a suspect who shot him, then stood over the wounded officer and fired numerous times. Daniel Giddings, 27, who was paroled in August with two years remaining on a 12-year sentence for aggravated assault and robbery, was himself killed in a shoot-out with police who responded to McDonald's call for assistance.

"Once we bury Pat, we're going to do an all-out assault on some of these judges, and make the community aware and get a little bit of respect back for the police officers on the streets," said John J. McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.

In response to criticism of the judicial system, Gov. Rendell has temporarily halted parole releases while the state's system undergoes a review.

Officer Richard Bowes, 36, who was shot in the thigh by Giddings during the gun battle in which the suspect was killed, attended the funeral and McDonald's burial at Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem. Bowes, discharged from the hospital on Friday, walked with crutches.

Yesterday's funeral was attended by close to 3,000 people who filled the cathedral or watched the services on a large television screen positioned in a park across from the cathedral. Several thousand police officers from departments as far away as Washington and Canada stood at attention and saluted as McDonald's flag-draped coffin was carried out of the cathedral to the sounds of bagpipes and drums plaintively echoing from the high-rises surrounding Logan Square.

Before the Mass, thousands of mourners filed past McDonald's body, which lay in an open cherry casket, engraved with a cross and his officer's badge number, 2831. His body was surrounded by mementos depicting his passion for football - the 1996 Archbishop Ryan graduate and lifelong Northeast Philadelphia resident was a running back for his high school team and also played for the Blue Flame of the Philadelphia Police and Fire Football Club.

McDonald's parents, Lawrence and Patricia McDonald, sat in the front pew with their surviving child, Megan, a paralegal in New York. McDonald's girlfriend, Officer Joanne Heary, joined them.

Ramsey told about visiting McDonald's family in recent days and seeing the gymnasium the officer had built in the basement of his Morrell Park home: 22 pieces of equipment he used for an hour each morning. "What that told me is that Pat McDonald is a person who was committed," Ramsey said.

George Gillin, McDonald's uncle, said his nephew's strength of character came from good parenting.

"Both parents taught their children to love God, love the family, love the community, and to work hard," said Gillin. "That's where sons and daughters like this come from. And with more sons and daughters like this, we will eradicate the problems in our society."