More than 1,000 officers in a long blue line saluted as the casket of fallen Sgt. Dario Aponte was carried into St. Michael’s Ukrainian Church for his funeral mass.
A pipe and drum corps played “Going Home,” a mournful slow march, as hundreds of non-uniformed New Haveners joined them, thronging George Street on a rainy Saturday morning to offer their tribute in deep silence and muffled tears.
Aponte (pictured) was killed in the line of duty late Tuesday night in a tragic accident, at the corner of Chapel and East streets. His cruiser collided with that of Officer Diane Gonzales as they both sped to a domestic incident in Fair Haven. That Officer Gonzales remained in critical condition, fighting for her life at Yale-New Haven Hospital, underscored the gravity and profound sense of the fragility of all life that marked Saturday’s funeral.
(Friday night, the cops arrested both parties to the domestic incident.)
With slightly more than a hundred seats, St. Michael’s was reserved for family, officials such as Mayor John DeStefano and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, and the officers who were closest to the well-liked 17-year veteran of the force. His wife Donna, also a New Haven police officer, is of Ukrainian heritage. Her brother, a priest, was one of the participants in the solemn funeral mass, which follows the Byzantine rite of the Catholic Church.
“For the newly fallen servant of God, Dario Aponte,” came the words of the service, frequently punctuated with bells that, through two elevated loudspeakers set up in front of St. Michael’s gilded fa√ßade, sounded almost like twittering birds: “We ask for forgiveness of his sins, voluntary and involuntary.”
In the interlude before the service began, however, not a single sin, but rather instances of Aponte’s permanent good cheer were recalled, along with a devotion to a calling he knew he had from early youth. These were summoned up in memory by Aponte cousins (pictured right to left) Brent and Chris Coppedge and Joel Stone, who came up from Fort Pierce, Florida.
“I will tell you this, above all,” said Chris Coppedge. “From when he was in diapers, Dario knew he wanted to be a cop.”
And by all accounts a superb cop he was.
Former police chief Francisco Ortiz, who at one time was Aponte’s downtown supervisor, recalled that Aponte’s range as a police officer was unusually broad. “He was a mounted officer, with the bureau of investigation at crime scenes and in the laboratory taking DNA swabs, and, most recently, a supervisor of patrol.
“Many cops would just be happy with one of those jobs and stick to it for a career! But Aponte liked to keep learning. He had that rare combination of being people-centered but also highly meticulous and reliable. He really got it. He was a consummate professional.”
Another of Aponte’s great fans in the department, Lt. Luiz Casanova, now the district manager of Fair Haven, recalled a lesson that had to do with a horse. He and Aponte were in Hartford at the time, many years ago, Casanova recalled. “We were there together for the Puerto Rican Day parade. He was in the mounted unit then, but he didn’t know his horse so well, yet.
“The horse got away from Scotty, and, guess what? He spent most of the parade trying to track it down. He never actually caught the horse. The horse came to a stop, finally, on its own, way down at the highway, and just waited for Dario to arrive. We never let him live that one down for the rest of his career.”
As the service continued inside, many officers waited to escort Sgt. Aponte to his grave in the Mt. St. Peter Cemetery in Derby. His far-flung family, including grieving aunts Helen Stevens and Sharley Partin, up from North Carolina, would also accompany.
But before that occurred, the officers seemed to come to a slow attention, as from inside they heard Attorney General Blumenthal: “My official state words of condolence are far less eloquent than that long line of blue outside paying homage. Sgt. Aponte was a calm presence at countless scenes of domestic violence. He was a steady hand at accidents. He was a dedicated professional at crime scenes. He was a true hero and he will be sorely missed.”
Just a week ago, the renovated memorial wall honoring New Haven police officers who died in the line of duty was dedicated. Its designer, William MacMullen, noted that the last photographs were of officers Dan Picagli in October, 2006, and Robert Fumiati, January, 2007, numbers 18 and 19. “Let us hope,” he said, “the empty spot there will not be filled, that there will never be a 20th.”
Alas, the 20th has arrived. “Now cracks a noble heart,” said Mayor DeStefano, in his eulogy, quoting Horatio on the death of Hamlet, “Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”