{"id":100913,"date":"2026-01-15T06:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100913\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:23:14","slug":"state-police-honor-calverton-trooper-who-died-from-9-11-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100913\/","title":{"rendered":"State police honor Calverton trooper who died from 9\/11 illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Funeral-2-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tState Police lined the streets to honor Sgt. Michael L. Piro on Jan. 10. (Credit: Courtesy New York State Police)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>More than 100 New York State Police troopers filled St. Isidore Catholic Church in Riverhead last Friday to honor retired Sgt. Michael Piro of Calverton, <a href=\"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/2026\/01\/131115\/michael-l-piro\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who died from an illness linked to his service at Ground Zero<\/a> after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Piro, 63, died Jan. 6, becoming the 39th State Police member to die from a 9\/11-related illness. Gov. Kathy Hochul<a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/news\/governor-hochul-directs-flags-half-staff-honor-retired-sergeant-michael-l-piro\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> ordered flags on state buildings flown at half-staff in his honor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Troopers escorted the hearse from McLaughlin-Heppner Funeral Home on Marcy Avenue to the church on Pulaski Street.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Funeral-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-131209\"  \/>More than 100 troopers showed their respect for Sgt. Michael Piro in Riverhead. (Credit: Courtesy New York State Police)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am profoundly grateful for Sgt. Piro and his dedication to keeping New York safe,\u201d Gov. Hochul said in a statement. \u201cI join his family, colleagues, and community in honoring his life and service, and send my deepest condolences to those whose lives he touched.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sgt. Piro retired from the state police on March 26, 2015, after 29 years of service. His last assignment was to Troop L SP-Riverside. <\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his four children \u2014 Melissa, Jennifer, Michael and Joseph \u2014 and was predeceased by his wife, Cynthia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Police lined the streets to honor Sgt. Michael L. Piro on Jan. 10. (Credit: Courtesy New York&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46230,46231,9,11,10,49,51,50,747,2578,46232,7037],"class_list":{"0":"post-100913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-calverton","9":"tag-michael-piro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-state-news","16":"tag-new-york-state-police","17":"tag-premium","18":"tag-riverhead","19":"tag-world-trade-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}