NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — New Haven Police Officer Joshua Castellano was laid to rest on Friday.
His family, friends, and brothers and sisters in blue poured into Saint Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue — the same church where a New Haven firefighter was laid to rest in May.
Castellano was killed a week ago in a crash in Las Vegas. New Haven Police Officer Robert Ferraro is charged with DUI in connection with the crash.
New Haven Police Chief Renee Dominguez says it feels more like two months — that’s how deeply the department is grieving as they lay to rest a beloved colleague and friend.
After the funeral, the motorcade was trailed by mourners, including two officers who survived the alleged DUI crash that killed Castellano, making their way to Grove Street Cemetery.
The 7-year veteran was described as a model police officer, someone even the so-called “bad guys” have called the department to leave messages of mourning for because he treated everyone with respect.
The kind of officer who could track down suspects, then turn around and throw on a Halloween costume for neighborhood kids.
The kind of officer who can’t help but be remembered with a smile, even through grief and tears.
“It’s heart,” Dominguez said. “That’s the acronym for our values for the New Haven Police Department and our mission and value statement. It’s honor, excellence, accountability, respect, and tenacity. And he has all of those values.”
When asked how the department will move forward after all of this, the police chief says they’ll do what Castellano would have wanted. They’ll continue to take care of each other.
Hundreds of people paid tribute to him during calling hours in West Haven Thursday. Earlier this week, a procession took place with personnel from New Haven Police and Connecticut State Police carrying his casket to the New Haven Police Department.
Castellano’s death has been ruled an accident, and the coroner said he died of multiple blunt force injuries after being ejected from the vehicle.
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