LOWELL — It was 30 years ago today, but everyone who was working at Lowell Police at the time still remembers exactly where they were when they learned that four Lowell Police officers, a North Reading Police Officer, and three civilians lost their lives in a plane crash on Oct. 20, 1996.
It was the darkest day in the history of the Lowell Police Department.
Retired Capt. Kevin Sullivan — then just an officer — was in the locker room at the police station when he first overheard two colleagues talking about a plane crash. Sullivan would soon learn that crash claimed the life of his dad, retired Sgt. John F. Sullivan Jr., as well as the lives of Capt. Steven A. Smith, Officer David A. Seamans, Officer Donald E. Brill, and North Reading Police Officer Robert Marchionda.
North Reading Police Chief Mark Zimmerman was at home when he got the news about Officer Marchionda, with whom Zimmerman had worked his first-ever shift with North Reading Police.
“We didn’t have Field Training Officers back then, but he was a mentor to me and many others,” Chief Zimmerman said on Tuesday at a memorial ceremony at JFK Plaza in Lowell.
The memorial included a wreath-laying, a flyover from the Massachusetts State Police Airwing, and remarks from Lowell Superintendent Greg Hudon, Deputy Superintendent Mark LeBlanc, and Detective Lt. Joe Murray.
Sgt. Sullivan was a third-generation police officer whose father was a retired Westford Police chief. He had spent 43 years with the department, mostly as a detective, and retired just months before he died, intending to spend time with grandchildren.
Capt. Steven A. Smith had just earned a law degree and was about to start a new assignment as Day Shift Commander. Each year in his memory, the Lowell Police Academy presents the Capt. Steven A. Smith Award to the top academic recruit.
Officer David Seamans, whose sons now serve with Dracut Police, the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office and Lower Marion, Pennsylvania Police, was a Vietnam veteran who had just been named the Lowell Police Department’s Top Cop a year before. He was a K9 officer and served on the SWAT team.
Officer Donald Brill, who helped found both the Gang Unit and Mounted Unit, received numerous citations for his work.
North Reading Officer Robert Marchionda was a SWAT team member who had received a total of 38 citations for his work with police in North Reading and Miami. He also served as a leader within his department and often mentored younger officers.
Also lost in the crash were the pilot, Michael Burns, of Maine, and Barton Gaffney and John Gaffney, both of whom were veterans.
“Although there are only a few of us still working who worked with Don, Dave, Steve, John and Robert, their memories are still alive, their contributions to their departments have not been forgotten, and their stories are still being told to a new generation of officers that now know their names,” said Det. Lt. Murray, who remembers working the early night shift at the time of the incident, 30 years ago.
“I remember on my very first day of work, Officer Robert Marchionda was patrolling North Reading with me, and he set an example that even those who didn’t know him will benefit from remembering,” said Chief Zimmerman. “From serving with SWAT, to serving his community and trying to help others, he was a leader and a man whose name we will never forget in North Reading.”
Deputy Superintendent LeBlanc explained that the police department is like a family, where new officers are told of and remember those who came before them, even when they didn’t work together.
“This is part of our understanding that we belong to something bigger than ourselves,” said Deputy LeBlanc. “To the newer officers among us, you may not have been here 30 years ago, but you are part of the department they served, and their story is part of the history you now carry forward.”
“We remember their lives, and we honor their families,” he said.
