Pittsfield Police remember fallen officer 65-years later…

Today the Pittsfield Police Department is honoring a fallen officer who passed away on this day back in 1956.  Police Officer Leo Sullivan suffered a fatal heart attack while dealing with an intoxicated man at a local Berkshire restaurant.  Officer Sullivan was off duty at the time.

According to the post on the Pittsfield Police Department's Facebook page, Officer Leo Sullivan served on the Pittsfield Police Department for 29 years.   Officer Sullivan was 54 years old and was survived at the time by his wife and three children.

Locally, five officers have died: Capt. Michael Leonard, in 1898; Jailer James Fuller, 1901; Secret Service Operative William Craig, 1902; Officer Leo Sullivan, 1956; and Officer Timothy Shepard, 1988.

In 1898 Captain Michael Lenard was struck by a train as he was attempting to help a mother and child off the tracks.  A freight train approaching the station failed to slow down, striking Capt. Lenard.  Over 5,000 people had gathered at the train dept awaiting the arrival of soldiers returning from the Spanish-American War.  Capt. Lenard was 55 years old and left behind a wife and eleven children.

Operative William Craig with the United States Secret Service was killed in the line of duty when the carriage he was riding in was struck by a trolly on South Main Street in Pittsfield while on detail protecting President Roosevelt.  It is not clear if President Roosevelt was in the same carriage as Craig, but Craig’s obituary on the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes website stated that President Roosevelt along with the Governor of Massachusetts were slightly injured in the accident.  William Craig was the first Secret Service member killed while protecting a president.  He was 47 years old.

Jailer James Fuller worked as a Jailer at the Pittsfield House of Correction in 1901 when he was beaten to death by a prisoner with a six-pound whalebone mallet as he was overseeing 20 prisoners in the prisons workshop.  Fuller’s killer was declared insane and committed to Bridgewater Insane Asylum in 1901 where he died in 1903.  Before working at the prison Fuller was a member of the Pittsfield Police Department.  James Fuller was 69 years old at the time of his death.  One of his two sons went on to become the Sheriff of Berkshire County.

In a tragic day at the Police Academy, Officer Timothy Shepard on his first day at the academy died at the age of 25 from dehydration as he was overcome with heat stroke and dehydration as he was pushed to the limits of endurance training.  According to his obituary on the Mass Fallen Heroes website, cadets were only given small cups of water while performing push-ups, running and other strenuous exercises for hours.  Officer Shepard had undergone a liver transplant, slipped into a coma and later died from complications.  Shepard’s issues were not isolated that day as fifteen other Cadets were hospitalized for exhaustion and dehydration.  Officer Shepard and his wife were expecting their first child at the time of his death.

The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation website was the source of the fallen officers obituary information.