Wednesday marks the anniversary of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s death. His girlfriend, Karen Read, was charged with his murder, but the controversial case ended in a mistrial last summer and continues to cause division, all while his family awaits justice.
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Wednesday marks three years since the death of John O'Keefe, the Boston police officer who was found dead outside the home of another officer in Canton on a snowy morning in January of 2022.
O'Keefe's death was a tragedy to his family, and marked the start of the ongoing case against Karen Read, his girlfriend who has been accused of hitting and killing him with her SUV.
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People were standing at the display set up for O'Keefe to honor him at the Canton Police Department early Wednesday morning. People have been at the display since 8 a.m. Tuesday, and the plan is for them to stay until 8 a.m. Wednesday.
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However, the 24-hour vigil was not attended by friends and family of O'Keefe. A friend of O'Keefe said he doesn't believe the vigil is a genuine honoring of the late officer, and that it is raising money to help defendant Read.
"They're asking for the amount of his badge number to be donated to her defense fund. At a minimum, at a minimum, that's distasteful," John Jackson said. "There's no reason he shouldn't be with us today. The three years is an open wound, that's just not healing."
Participants at the vigil felt they were doing the right thing, saying they were seeking justice for both O'Keefe and for Read.
"I'm not from Canton. I don't know John, but I know when something isn't right," said Jessica Svedine, one of the organizers of the standout.
"John gets forgotten about. You don't hear about him. You hear about everything else, but he gets lost," said Tom Derosier.
The standout in Canton included members of the Free Karen Read movement, including Scott McGuinness.
"This is not a fundraiser for Free Karen Read. This is the Free Karen Read movement honoring Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe," he said.
Karen Read's re-trial is still set for April 1.
Born and raised in suburban Braintree, O’Keefe graduated from Northeastern University and earned a master’s in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts. He was 46 at the time of his death, and had been a Boston police officer for 16 years.
For much of that time, O’Keefe also had been raising his niece and nephew in Canton after his sister and her husband died just months apart. He also lost his best friend, fellow Boston Officer Pat Rogers, to suicide. Rogers’ girlfriend was pregnant at the time, and O’Keefe quickly stepped up to support her as well, acting as godfather to her son.