The Associated Press
HOLBROOK, N.Y. (AP) -- Thousands of police officers from across Long Island lined up outside Good Shepherd Church on Friday to pay tribute at the funeral for a decorated Suffolk County police officer who died in a one-car crash this week on the Northern State Parkway.
“Eddie Hernandez was a great guy and a hard worker,” said Officer Robert Boden. “He was a really good cop. He worked as hard after 19 years on this job as he did as a rookie.”
Hernandez, 44, was driving west shortly early Tuesday when he apparently lost control of his police cruiser, hit a guardrail and then a tree at the Dix Hills Road overpass, police said. He was pronounced dead at Stony Brook Medical Center.
The resident of Ridge, who was twice named Suffolk County’s police officer of the year and was officer of the month eight times, is survived by his wife of 25 years, Coralee Hernandez, and two children.
Hernandez won acclaim in 2002 after he used his police cruiser to halt a runaway sport utility vehicle careening down the Long Island Expressway, avoiding what could have been a disastrous outcome.
Boden said his colleague never considered himself a hero. “He was shy and he didn’t want to blow his own horn,” Boden said. “He didn’t want to be a hero. He just wanted to be a cop and do his job.”
Hernandez was the third Suffolk County peace officer to die in the line of duty this month. Patchogue village constable Felice Taldone died July 12, two days after being critically injured by an allegedly drunken driver while directing traffic.
Five days later, Babylon town bay constable Richard Brooks was shot to death by a man he tried to pull over for drunken driving. The gunman was later shot to death by police responding to the scene.