WOBURN – For fourteen years, a Massachusetts community has gathered to remember a fallen officer who gave his life the day after Christmas to protect his community.
Killed while responding to a robbery
The city of Woburn remembered Officer Jack Maguire with a police parade and a Christmas tree draped in blue lights. The tree overlooks the tragedy.
Maguire was shot and killed while responding to a robbery at Kohl’s on December 26, 2010. He wasn’t even scheduled to work that night.
CBS Boston
“Jack had enough seniority to take Christmas off, but he worked so the younger people with younger children could spend time with their families,” former Woburn Police Chief Robert Ferullo recalled. He was there the night Maguire died, but at the time he was a lieutenant in the force. ‘It was a miserable snowstorm, it was a terrible night, Jack didn’t need to be here. Jack was there. Jack got out of his car and got engaged. And he did what he was trained to do.”
Maguire exchanged gunfire with one of the men involved, Dominic Cinelliwho was released from prison on parole. He died of gunshot wounds sustained during the incident.
“A good officer”
“Jack was always a friend, a role model, a mentor, someone I spent my entire career with,” Ferullo said.
“Jack was a very hard-working officer who went above and beyond. He worked on all the details. He worked all the time,” Maguire’s brother said. Chuck Maguire.
That evening, Chuck Maguire received a call from his cousin telling him his brother had been shot. It wasn’t until he arrived at the hospital and started asking questions that he heard the latest news.
“When I turned my head, they announced the code that he had passed away,” said Chuck Maguire. “It’s sad that he died just after he turned 60, and just after he announced his retirement. We miss him. His children miss him. My children don’t see him.”
Chuck Maguire is grateful for the community’s many years of support. On Thursday, people lined Washington Street in Woburn to watch police cars pass by the tree in honor of his brother.
“He was a great guy, a good family man, a good officer,” recalled Bruce Hildebrandt, a Woburn resident who takes the time every year to make sure the tree and its decorations stay in place. “I pick them up and my fingers freeze as I pinch the hooks, but that wasn’t much of a pain for me compared to what Jack gave us.”
Mike Sullivan
