For the second time in less than three months, thousands of police officers, first responders and civilians lined Bayview Drive in Barrie to honour the life of a police officer killed in the line of duty.
The funeral procession was held today to Sadlon Arena for OPP Const. Grzegorz (Greg) Pierzchala, who was shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2022 while responding to a call for a vehicle in a ditch west of Hagersville.
Officials estimated more than 7,500 officers from various police services — including RCMP, OPP, Barrie police, and military police to name just a few — were in Barrie today to pay their respects to their fallen colleague.
Pierzchala, 28, was born in Toronto, but grew up in Barrie, attending St. Joan of Arc Catholic High School. He had been with OPP for just more than a year and had been notified he had passed his 10-month probation period just hours before his death.
Roxanne Logan was one of the many first responders who came out on the gloomy Wednesday morning to say goodbye to a man she called her friend. Logan said she knew Pierzchala from their time as members of the Barrie unit of the Grey & Simcoe Foresters, a primary reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces.
All her friend wanted was to be a police officer, said an emotional Logan.
“He just wanted to help people. That’s all he talked about. He was so focused on his goals and he was kind and friendly. He was just a good person," she said.
Bill Grant has been a police officer for more than 20 years and is currently recovering from a stroke. Although he was unable to march in today’s service next to his fellow Barrie police colleagues, he and his wife, Niki, felt it was important he come out with his own family to watch the funeral procession — not only to honour the slain officer, but also in the hopes they’d be able to see up close how big the policing family is.
“We just thought it was really important to be here for our police family. We all have to support each other and we thought it would be good for them (the kids) to see the blue family that we all have,” said Nikki Grant. “We wanted to be there to support his family and to support all police who still have to go out and do their job. Guns are so much more prominent and it’s a scary time. We just wanted to support Greg and the sacrifice that he made.”
It was a little under three months ago that the joint funeral for South Simcoe Police constables Devon Northrup and Morgan Russell was held at the same arena. Const. Russell, 54, and Const. Northrup, 33, were shot while responding to a disturbance call at an Alcona home on Oct. 11, 2022.
Pierzchala was the fourth Ontario police officer to be killed while on duty in late 2022 and the fifth killed in Canada while on the job since mid-September, a statistic that Stephanie Quito, who works as a 911 dispatcher for EMS, said has left her shaken, especially with several friends and family members working as first responders.
Although she didn’t know Pierzchala, Quito said she had heard nothing but amazing things about the young officer from those who did. She and her three-year-old son, Gavin, joined the crowd on Bayview Drive as they waited patiently for the cortege carrying the young officer's body made its way from Adams Funeral Home in the city’s north end to Sadlon Arena for the invitation-only service, which was livestreamed by the OPP.
“I wanted to show him that there are real-life heroes and that it’s a respected profession and that even when they fall, they deserve our respect,” she said while choking back tears.
The funeral service at Sadlon Arena was to be followed by a funeral mass at Holy Spirit Parish on Essa Road and interment at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery on Sunnidale Road.
