{"id":95860,"date":"2026-01-10T16:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95860\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T16:32:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:32:28","slug":"n-y-gov-hochul-orders-flags-to-half-staff-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95860\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. Gov. Hochul orders flags to half-staff Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed flags on all state government buildings to fly at half-staff on Saturday, Jan. 10, in honor of retired New York State Police Sergeant Michael L. Piro.<\/p>\n

Piro died on Jan. 6 from an illness related to his assignment at the World Trade Center site following the 9\/11 terrorist attack. He was 63.<\/p>\n

New York State Police announced his passing as a line of duty death.<\/a> He had retired from the New York State Police on March 26, 2015, after 30 years of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cA distinguished member of the New York State Police, Sergeant Piro, stepped up to serve and protect his fellow New Yorkers when it was needed most,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cI am profoundly grateful for Sergeant Piro and his dedication to keeping New York safe, and I 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

A family obituary reads<\/a>: \u201cHe was born in Germany on Dec. 28, 1962, to Helene (Heindel) and Joseph Piro. He attended Belport High School. He served as a sergeant with the New York State Police Troop L. He was a member of the Mattituck Gun Club and the Association of Former NYS Troopers. His family said he enjoyed trapshooting and, more than anything else, spending time with his grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piro is survived by four children. His wife, Cynthia, preceded him in death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed flags on all state government buildings to fly at half-staff on Saturday, Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-95860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95860","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=95860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}