Memorial Service Honoring Memory of Officer John Burke

From the Office of the Chief of Police
Arthur C. Snellbaker Sr.

Contact:
SGT. MICHAEL C. TULLIO/P.I.O.
Public Information Officer
Phone# (609) 347-6472
Fax# (609) 347-8377
Pager# (609) 525-6976

ATLANTIC CITY NJ, DECEMBER 28, 2001- A memorial ceremony was held on Friday December 28, 2001, in honor of the late Atlantic City Police K-9 Officer John "Sonny" Burke who was killed in the line of duty on October 1, 1970.

Members of the Police Department both Active & Retired along with members of the Burke Family, gathered at Burkes Graveside in the Holy Cross Cemetery located in Mays Landing NJ. The yearly memorial is held to honor Burke, who was gunned down in Atlantic City, while checking on two suspicious males shortly before the end of his shift.

Deputy Chief of Police Michael Erskine spoke to the gathering about how he had just completed taking his certification to become a Police Officer, the very night Burke was killed in the line of Duty. Erskine spoke of how it still is with him some thirty years later, and how it had impacted him as a young man just entering the career field.

Burke's killer, James Cherry had fled to the Country of Cuba and stayed there for some 20 years, until returning to the United States in 1990. Upon Cherry's return, he was arrested and subsequently convicted of Burke's murder.

Officer Burke was one of five Atlantic City Police Officers to be killed in the line of duty from 1890 through 1981.

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