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Pittsfield Police Honor Nation's Fallen Officers

The Honor Guard honored five officers who were killed in duty while working for the city.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — County law enforcement honored more than 19,000 police officers who were killed in the line of duty, including five from Pittsfield, as part of National Police Week.

The weeklong memorial began in 1962 with a declaration of then President John F. Kennedy. Hundreds of officers from  across the country flock to Washington, D.C., each year as names of fallen officers are added to a memorial.

This year, 321 new names will be added, 120 of whom died in the line of duty last year.

Locally, five names are already on that plaque — Capt. Michael Leonard, who died in 1898; Jailer James Fuller, 1901; Secret Service Operative William Craig, 1902; Officer Leo Sullivan, 1956; and Officer Timothy Shepard, 1988. All of them were killed while working in or for the city.

On Tuesday, the Pittsfield Police Department was joined by other county agencies to honor those five as part of the weeklong event. The Police Department's flag was raised to half staff by the Honor Guard.

"The sacrifices that these officers made and those of their survivors, family and colleagues cannot and must not be forgotten," Police Chief Michael Wynn said. "It's important that we hold the memories of the other 19,000 fallen officers close to our hearts to remind us of the risks and chances law enforcement officers taken every day."

Wynn added that with all of the new technology and equipment that have advanced the job, it "still comes down to the individual officers putting themselves in the line of duty."

"As of today, in 2013, 41 American law enforcement officers have already paid the ultimate price. Among them is Officer Sean Collier of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department, who was targeted and killed by terrorists during last month's events," Wynn said, referring to the event surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings.

South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning. 

 

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

 

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76. 

 

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

 

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

 

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains. 

 

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.