Next --->

< --- Previous

To Starter Page

To NYCHS
home page

Those in attendance yesterday took just a slight bit of comfort that his alleged killer had been apprehended earlier in the day.

"That fact won't bring him back, but it's sort of poetic justice that he was caught on the same day of George's funeral," Deputy Warden Peter Schaeffer, Mr. Motchan's command officer, reflected.

Not much was said by those in attendance at yesterday's ceremonies in St. Rita’s R.C. Church. Meiers Corners. These who knew the 45-year- old father to two considered the friend they lost. Those who didn’t mulled over the tragedy of the incident.

"His death certainty shocked all New Yorker's as well as myself,’’ Mayor Beame commented while leaving the mass. "Certainly this proves the need for national gun control laws so this doesn't happen again,” he said.

Yesterday's ceremonies began outside St. Rita’s, where 500 formally attired corrections offIcers stood in a light drizzle over a one-block area, at attention and facing the church,

They. along with friends and family, watched solemnly as six officers removed Mr. Motchan's coffin, draped with an American Flag, and began the slow walk up the church steps. A four-man color guard followed, and subsequently his saddened family.

The Rev. David Casata. pastor of St. Rita's R.C. Church in Long Island City, Queens, delivered the eulogy to a silent reflecting congregation. "In his last days in the hospital. George's ultimate concern was not for himself, but for his family," Father Casata told a hushed crowd. "We can look back and remember his goodness."

The Rev. Charles Repole. chaplain at the Department of Correction facility or Rikers Island, called all correction officers the "unsung heroes" of today.

"We have come here to pay tribute to one of our buddies, he said. "Corrections officers are unsung heroes, He's behind those bars. He’s had rocks thrown at him. The public should realize we've lost an unsung hero." He labeled Mr. Motchan "a man ready to be there when you needed him.”

As the concelehrated mass neared a close, Father Casata blessed the coffin. drawing complete silence from the congregation, save for the moffled sobs of Mr. Motchan's widow. Dolly.

A 19-car funeral procession went to St. Peters Cemetery, flanked at its outset by correction officers. "The incident is certainty terribly unfortunate," Borough President Corsor said. "But it gives us as an indication of the constant hazard that various law enforcement officers work with."

For 17 yearn, George Motchan braved that hazard. Yesterday, friends and mourners paid a final tribute to the 45-year-old corresction officer.