BRAINTREE, MASS. (WHDH) - Family, friends, and law enforcement officials gathered Monday to say a final farewell to Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, who died after being found unresponsive outside a Canton home during a nor’easter last month.
A funeral Mass for O’Keefe, 46, was held at St. Francis of Assisi Church on Washington Street in Braintree at 11:30 a.m. It was followed by a private burial in Blue Hill Cemetery.
Hundreds of Boston police officers, along with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, attended a wake for O’Keefe on Sunday.
The 16-year veteran of the Boston police force was found unresponsive in a snowbank on Fairview Road in Canton last Saturday before being pronounced dead hours later at Good Samaritan Hospital, officials said.
His girlfriend, Karen Read, 41, of Mansfield, is facing charges of manslaughter, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death, and motor vehicle homicide in connection with O’Keefe’s death.
Prosecutors say following a night of drinking on Friday, Read struck O’Keefe while trying to make a three-point turn and then drove away. She and two friends reportedly returned to the home the next morning after not being able to contact O’Keefe and found him unresponsive.
O’Keefe was born and raised in Braintree, where he graduated from Braintree High School and later Northeastern University, according to an obituary provided by Cartwright-Venuti Funeral Home.
He went on to earn his master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts.
O’Keefe, who moved to Canton, took guardianship of his sister’s two young children after she passed away from a brain tumor and her husband passed away from a heart attack months later, his family said.
“We were so fortunate to have him as a part of our lives. When John’s sister passed away, and then her husband did as well a short time later, John welcomed the opportunity to raise his beloved niece and nephew and build a home and a life around their needs,” O’Keefe’s family said in a statement last week. “People talk about someone who would give you the shirt off their back but that was truly who John was, and it is heartbreaking for us to suddenly be talking about him in the past tense.”
A GoFundMe page that was established has raised more than $200,000 for the children.
Read is due back in court in March.
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