Hundreds of mourners lined up outside a funeral home in Westchester to say goodbye to the NYPD detective killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan last week.
Tech Sgt. Joseph Lemm, 45, was among the six U.S. troops killed outside Bagram Air Base. Staff Sgt. Louis Bonacasa, 31, of Long Island was also killed in the attack.
A police motorcade escorted Lemm's body from Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, where his remains arrived Monday afternoon, to St. Anthony of Padua Church in his hometown of West Harrison Tuesday.
Family, fellow Air Force National Guard members and NYPD colleagues lined up to pay respect to Lemm, along with police officers from other departments.
Joe Bracero, who worked with Lemm in the NYPD, said, "Even from day one as a new officer to the city of New York, he always had his heart in it, 100 percent/"
"He was great to work with," said Bracero. "He wanted to learn and he was active. He was always learning and wasn't afraid."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent time with Lemm's family ahead of the wake Tuesday.
"A policeman in a really tough job, and then you're in the National Guard going to the toughest places on the planet," said Cuomo. "This was really an extraordinary human being on every level."
The detective nicknamed Superman was a husband and father of two. The family was surrounded by support at the church.
"It's a matter of brotherhood," said Greenwich Police Lt. Kraig Gray. "Although I don't know the officer that passed away, there are a lot of things that we have in common. I'm also a police officer as well as a former serviceman."
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"It's about him and his family, and if my presence here helps to alleviate or support them in any way, shape or form, I'm happy to be here," he said.
Lemm served in the Bronx warrant squad on the NYPD, and during his career on the force, he was also deployed three times, twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq, Bratton said. He was promoted to NYPD detective in January of 2014.
Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Benevolent Association, said, "I think it resonates with civilians, the sacrifice this man made. And he patrolled over there to protect what we hold sacred here."
Lemm's funeral will be held Wednesday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. He will be buried at a cemetery in Hawthorne.
Lemm and Bonacasa were both members of the New York Air National Guard's 105th Airlift Wing, based at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh. They had deployed to Bagram in October, and the two men were both on their last tours of duty, their relatives said.
