Ed Leigh and grandson Johnny Pawlowski, 2, thank the Highway Patrol Motorcycle Drill Team for the Easter dinner delivered to their home in honor of Johnny’s father, Officer John Pawlowski, who was murdered in 2009. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
— Families of fallen or injured police officers get a special delivery of pre-Easter feasts.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 and attorney James Binns last week organized a motorcycle caravan that delivered full-course Easter dinners to the families of 11 police officers killed or seriously injured in the line of duty.
The FOP and Binns have been donating dinners to the families during the Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays since 2008. They are joined by Philadelphia Police Department officials and the city highway patrol motorcycle drill team, along with 100 uniformed motorcycle police officers from throughout the tri-state area.
John McNesby, president of FOP Lodge 5, also sponsored a breakfast for riders and commanders at Sunnybrook Golf Club in Plymouth Meeting.
The deliveries were made on April 4–5 to the families of the following officers:
• Walter Barclay, who was shot and paralyzed by a burglary suspect in Olney in 1966. He died of complications of the wound in 2007.
• John Pawlowski, who was shot to death in February 2009 during a dispute between two men at Broad Street and Olney Avenue.
• John Marynowitz, who was shot and critically injured in 1993 in West Oak Lane when he and partner Robert Hayes stopped a gypsy cab that was driven by an illegal immigrant from Haiti and contained drugs. Hayes was killed.
• Patrick McDonald, of Morrell Park, who was shot to death in North Philadelphia in September 2008 by 27-year-old Daniel Giddings, a parolee whose life of violent crime started when he was 10.
• Andrew Stackwicz, a 22nd Police District sergeant and East Torresdale resident who died of a heart attack in October 2008 sometime after a foot pursuit in North Philadelphia.
• Chuck Cassidy, who was shot to death in the fall of 2007 after he interrupted an armed robbery at a West Oak Lane Dunkin’ Donuts.
• Timothy Simpson, a Holme Circle resident who was killed in Port Richmond in November 2008 when his squad car was struck by a stolen car whose driver was eluding police. The suspect, William Foster, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 19 to 40 years in prison.
• Stephen Liczbinski, who was shot to death in May 2008 in Port Richmond while trying to apprehend bank robbers.
• Gary Skerski, the 15th Police District community relations officer shot to death in 2006 during the armed robbery of a Northwood bar.
• Joseph L. Szczerba, a New Castle County (Del.) Police Department lieutenant who died of a stab wound to the neck while struggling with a suspect last September.
• Chris Jones, a Middletown police officer who was struck and killed on Route 1 in January 2009 while making a traffic stop. ••
