Thousands of uniformed police, firefighters and paramedics said goodbye Monday to Onondaga County Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Hoosock and offered a sturdy presence to his wife and three young children.
Hoosock, 37, was one of two police officers ambushed and shot to death April 14 by a gunman armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle. Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen also died. Jensen was buried Saturday after a service at his family church in Rome.
The Rev. Christopher Celentano, of St. Rose of Lima Church, spoke Monday directly to Caitlin Hoosock from the altar set up inside the cavernous state fair Expo Center.
“This community loves you. The brethren love you. We’re here to support you. We have your back,” he said.
The children, ages 3, 5 and 7, brought the gifts to the altar.
Caitlin gave a tearful eulogy for her husband, who she said brought joy to all the little moments.
She called him her best friend and said he was the kind of dad who served ice cream for dinner and let everyone spend the day in pajamas.
“He had already been a superhero when I met him,” she said.
Hoosock had won awards for saving lives by then, Caitlin said: “But that didn’t seem to matter much to him. He wasn’t in it for the awards. He was in it for the joy of doing the job.”
Hoosock, who was known as “Hootch,” was a cop, a firefighter and a paramedic.
He worked as a paramedic for Rural Metro before he became a sheriff’s deputy. But he continued to work part-time as a paramedic after joining the sheriff’s office, in addition to volunteering as a firefighter.
Hoosock joined the Lyncourt Volunteer Fire Department as a teenager in 2002. After moving to Clay, he joined the Moyers Corners Fire Department in 2007, the same year he became a sheriff’s deputy.
Hoosock married the former Caitlin Carroll in 2017. They have three children, Nicole, Gabriel and Samuel.
In addition, Hoosock is survived by his parents, Daniel and Cynthia Hoosock, and his sister, Danielle Kepler.
Celentano, who led about a dozen clergy in the service, knew Hoosock from growing up in Lyncourt. They attended St. Daniel Church and its affiliated school, he said during an interview last week. Celentano was seven years older than Hoosock. Their parents were friends.
Several thousand people at the state fair Expo Center celebrated Hoosock’s life Monday during a very traditional Catholic Mass in a very non-traditional place.
An altar at one end of the Expo Center was set up on a stage with Jesus on the cross and a statue of Mary. A 50-person choir and about 15 musicians filled the room with hymns and responses. There was holy water, incense, Gospel readings and communion.
It took 45 minutes for so many uniformed police and firefighters to file in to 2,000 seats set up on the floor. At least 2,000 more firefighters, doctors, nurses, flight crews and friends filled the bleachers.
The state fair’s jumbotron showed pictures of “Hootch” with his fire and sheriff’s colleagues in front of fire trucks, marching in parades and giving a toast at a wedding. He posed with his wife and children, the Easter bunny and Santa.
The priest looked out at mourners on bleacher seats and folding chairs, an “I love NY” banner and signs for the bar and grill painted on the wall for other events.
“How could such a good man be taken by such a senseless act of violence?” he said. “It’s vile and disturbing, unsettling, for all of us.”
Celentano extolled Hoosock’s service, which he said stemmed from love.
“We know of his public service. We know of his valor. We know of his courage,’’ Celentano said. “It’s all on display.”
Hoosock’s widow delivered a brave and tearful eulogy, choking back tears to remember her husband’s courage, humor, kindness and honor.
She called herself “the eternally proud wife of an extraordinary man.”
Throughout the Expo Center, police officers could be seen dabbing their eyes as she spoke. She recalled Hoosock as a fun dad who taught his two sons to fish and his daughter to ride a bike.
Speaking to Hootch, she joked that the kids looked too much like him. But she said they have sought to comfort her in the past week. She vowed, tearfully, to “encourage your Mini-Mes to be the best part of you.”
She ended her eulogy with a quote that spoke to their relationship.
“Bravery is not the absence of fear, but action in place of fear,’’ she said. “Even when you’re afraid of spiders.”
At the end of the Mass, the Onondaga County 911 dispatcher broadcast a memo called a “10-7.” It played over a secure police channel and for those present at the funeral.
It marks the last call for an officer whose call sign is officially out of service.
“He will forever be a role model for so many and he will forever be missed,’’ the dispatcher said. “Unit 45L2 out of service.”
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com | 315-470-3186.
Staff writer Tim Knauss can be reached at: email | Twitter | 315-470-3023.
More stories on Michael Hoosock
- Hear the ‘last call’ police radio message sent for Lt. Michael Hoosock (video, transcript)
- ‘Love one another’: To honor Michael Hoosock, follow his dedication to serving others, priest says
- Slain cop Michael Hoosock remembered as mentor and hero: ‘That man saved my husband’s life’
- Hundreds pray at service for slain cop Michael Hoosock. ‘He always responded to the call.’
- Michael Hoosock: Life of public service ends in deadly gunfire for cop who was also husband, dad