By —Tom Tracy
Fort Hamilton Parkway was awash in blue uniforms Saturday morning as thousands said goodbye to the “always smiling” 70th Precinct police officer taken before his time last week. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were among the throngs of mourners to bid farewell to Police Officer Frank Hennessey, who died of a brain aneurysm while responding to a 911 call. Thousands more attended a wake M.J. Smith Funeral Home on Prospect Park West two days before. Hennessey, a native of County Longford Ireland, had worked at the 70th Precinct as a scooter cop for eight years. He was also assigned to protect shoppers and customers at Newkirk Plaza, police and residents said. To honor his duties, 25 police scooters led the procession. Kelly said that Hennessey loved his adoptive country. “Frank was a patriot and he loved his new country with a fervor born of his appreciation for the opportunities that it gave him,” Kelly told the congregation. Officials said that 35-year-old cop died while he and his fellow officers responded to a call of a man with a gun – a call that was later determined to be unfounded. Upon hearing the report at 9:30 p.m. on January 9, Hennessey jumped into the back of a police cruiser that was racing to the scene. After they arrived at the corner of Farragut Road and Flatbush Avenue and learned that they were on a wild goose chase, Hennessey got out of the car and collapsed. A fellow officer resuscitated him before paramedics arrived. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital and later transferred to SUNY Downstate Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at noon on January 10, officials said. His colleagues in the 70th Precinct described Hennessey as a happy, friendly person. “He was always smiling,” said one cop. Hennessey was survived by his wife Regina, his two-year-old daughter Shannon and five-year-old daughter Deirdre, who was given the folded up American flag that was draped over her father’s coffin. His parents and other family members flew in from Ireland to attend funeral services. This is the second time that the cops from the 70th Precinct had to suffer the loss of one of their brothers. In late November, the black bunting was put up in memoriam of Police Officer Dillon Stewart, who was shot and killed in the line of duty as he and his partner Paul Lipka chased down a man speeding through a red light on Church Avenue. Even though the bullet cut through his heart, Dillon kept on going, ultimately chasing the suspect into an underground garage on East 21st Street.
