A Boston Police officer who was found dead last weekend outside a Canton home has been laid to rest.
Officer John O'Keefe, who was 46, was remembered at a funeral Monday at his family's parish, St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree, where he grew up. He was buried at Blue Hill Cemetery.
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"He really is the person who would give you the shirt off of his back," said O'Keefe's cousin, Vanessa Rizzitano.
O'Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, was found dead early last Saturday morning outside a home on Fairview Road in Canton where his girlfriend had dropped him off around midnight.
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His girlfriend, Karen Read of Mansfield, has been charged with vehicular homicide and manslaughter in connection with O'Keefe's death. Read pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Stoughton District Court.
Inside O'Keefe's funeral, his brother, Paul, remembered his older sibling.
He was also the guardian to his young niece and nephew after his sister and her husband died.
"He took in the kids, like he was their own. When I needed a place to stay, he let me stay there, as well," Rizzitano said. "He would do anything for anyone."
A day earlier, hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to O'Keefe at his wake Sunday. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and many law enforcement officers were in attendance.
The Boston Police Department said last week it is stunned and saddened by O'Keefe's death.
"John was a kind person, dedicated to his family, and he will be greatly missed by his coworkers and anyone who had the privilege of meeting him," the department said in a statement last week.
"John will be sorely missed by all who were blessed to have known him," his obituary read.
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O'Keefe was also the devoted guardian of his niece Kayley and nephew Patrick -- the children of O'Keefe's late sister and late brother-in-law, Kristen O'Keefe Furbush and Stephen Furbush.
After his sister died in November 2013, followed by his brother-in-law in January 2014, O'Keefe "welcomed the opportunity to raise his beloved niece and nephew and build a home and a life around their needs," his family said in a statement last week.
A GoFundMe page was set up for Kayley and Patrick following O'Keefe's sudden death; the "Furbush Children's Fund" had raised more than $245,000 as of 5 p.m. Sunday.
O'Keefe's family said they appreciate the outpouring of support they have received, but they are asking for privacy while they mourn this "unbearable loss."
Read, who posted bail, will return to court on March 1 for a probable cause hearing.
