By Wayne Parry
Associated Press
LAKEWOOD, N.J. — Thousands of mourners, including police officers from across the country, streamed into this community near the Jersey shore to say goodbye Thursday to a police officer who was shot to death last week behind the wheel of his patrol car.
Funeral services for Lakewood Patrolman Christopher Matlosz will be held at noon at St. Mary of the Lake Roman Catholic Church.
More than 5,000 police officers were expected to attend, a spokesman for the state Policemen’s Benevolent Association said.
“They’ve received inquiries from all 50 states and several foreign countries, including the Bahamas and Canada,” said spokesman Jim Ryan.
In fact, so many police officers plan to attend that organizers are having them gather in the parking lot of a minor league baseball stadium more than two miles away, where they will be bused to the church.
A close friend of Matlosz plans to deliver a eulogy asking the slain officer to look over his friends from heaven. Stephen Gibson, a civilian employee of the New Jersey State Police who was friends with Matlosz for 12 years, plans to recall his friend as “my rock, my go-to person.”
“Today I stand before you and tell you that Patrolman Chris Matlosz was a hero,” Gibson wrote in remarks he planned to deliver during the funeral. “On that cold January evening, Chris paid the ultimate sacrifice. Christopher Anthony Matlosz, our friend and brother, was taken from us far too early, doing what he loved to do: being a police officer.”
Matlosz, 27, was on patrol Friday in a residential neighborhood in Lakewood that had been the scene of several drive-by shootings. He pulled his police cruiser up to a person on the sidewalk and began talking to him in a nonconfrontational manner, authorities said. Suddenly, the pedestrian pulled a handgun out of his baggy clothing and opened fire, shooting the officer three times.
Matlosz slumped behind the wheel, mortally wounded, as the suspect ran away.
On Sunday, police arrested Jahmell Crockam of Lakewood, who was hiding in an apartment in Camden, about 60 miles from the crime scene. He is charged with murder and weapons offenses, and is being held on $5 million bail. His public defender says Crockam plans to plead innocent at his formal arraignment, which still has not been scheduled.
An hour before the funeral was to begin, a line of more than 100 police motorcycles roared past the church in tribute, two abreast. A block away, a gigantic American flag was spread out between the aerial buckets of two fire engines.
Police officers from throughout New Jersey, as well as Philadelphia, Newark and New York City gathered outside the church, waiting to enter.