[Photo] Mourners line Elm Street in New Haven Friday, waiting to enter Celentano Funeral Home for the wake of Sgt. Dario “Scott” Aponte, who died in a collision of police cruisers Tuesday night. (Mara Laitt/Register)
Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:45 AM EDT
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff
NEW HAVEN — Hundreds of mourners braved unrelenting rain as they waited in line Friday night to honor a fallen police officer.
Dario "Scott" Aponte, 43, died Tuesday night when his squad car collided with another officer’s car on the way to an emergency call in Fair Haven.
Today, services will be held at 10 a.m. at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, 569 George St. in New Haven. Burial will follow at Mount Saint Peter’s Cemetery in Derby. Hundreds of white-gloved police officers from throughout the region are expected to attend.
On Friday, friends and colleagues waited in line for hours to say goodbye and express condolences to Aponte’s wife, Donna, who also is a New Haven police officer.
Almost as a reminder of how quickly the lives of police and firefighters can change, members of Engine 6 on Goffe Street were called away by a fire alarm after waiting more than 90 minutes to enter the funeral home.
Fire Lt. Lou Rivera, 43, returned later to pay his respects. He knew Aponte from calls to which both responded over the years.
"It is a big family, and when something like that happens you kind of have to reach out," he said.
The crash that killed Aponte and critically injured a second officer was a harsh reminder of the dangers associated with responding to calls for help, and prompted firehouse reminders to be safe, he said.
Officer Diane Gonzalez, 47, who was driving the other squad car racing to Fair Haven, remained in critical condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital with severe head injuries.
Around New Haven, officers said there had been an outpouring of support from the community, with strangers approaching to offer unsolicited condolences, sometimes from unlikely sources.
On Kensington Street Thursday, Officers Mike Novella and Ed Morrone were standing outside their cars when an old-timer from the neighborhood, whom Novella has arrested a few times before, walked past.
"He went home, changed and came back," Novella said. "He put on his suit and tie and came back down the road. I was standing outside the car and he walked right up to me and said, ‘I’m sorry about the officer,’" Novella said. "That went a long way with me."
The emotions went beyond colleagues and friends. Outside Celentano Funeral Home Thursday, about 50 officers snapped salutes as a hearse returned Aponte’s body to New Haven from the medical examiner’s office in Farmington.
"It’s a very personal thing with me, more so with the fire department, but with both," said funeral director Bill Celentano, a longtime city fire commissioner who runs Box 22, an organization that supports the fire department and runs a canteen at major fires.
"I view this situation right now as a tremendous honor to be able to participate in this whole thing," he said.
Aponte and Gonzalez were responding to a report of a man beating a woman in the city’s Fair Haven section when their cruisers collided late Tuesday at the intersection of East and Chapel streets.
Firefighter Kenny Oliver was one of the emergency workers who responded and treated Aponte on the way to the hospital. He finished his shift at American Medical Response Friday and was driving to the wake.
He had seen Aponte most recently in July right before Aponte was promoted to sergeant. Oliver said coping with Aponte’s death has been difficult because he replays that night over and over in his mind.
"You do your best, and we did our best," he said. "It’s a tough, tough week. You come to work and you’re expecting to go home. Whether you’re on the fire department, police department or a paramedic in an ambulance."
William Farrell spent 29 years on the New Haven police force and was waiting in line in the rain.
He said he worked with Aponte when Aponte was promoted to detective and assigned to the crime scene unit, where Farrell was the senior detective.
"The place has been part of me since I was born. I’ve been around cops for my whole life," said Farrell, whose father spent 36 years on the New Haven force and retired as chief.
"We worked side by side," he said of Aponte. "Besides being co-workers, he was a friend. It’s a tragedy for everybody."