Detective John M. Falcone, Poughkeepsie City Police Department, New York

Detective John M. Falcone

Poughkeepsie City Police Department, New York

End of Watch Friday, February 18, 2011

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John M. Falcone

Detective John Falcone was shot and killed after responding to a shots-fired call on Main Street.

He was just over a block away when he received the call and when he arrived at the scene, he encountered a man holding a 3-year-old child while waving a gun. The suspect fled, still holding the child, with Detective Falcone in pursuit.

Detective Falcone was able to rescue the child from the man and handed the child to a bystander before engaging in a struggle with the suspect as other officers arrived at the scene. During the struggle, Detective Falcone was fatally shot in the head before the man committed suicide while struggling with another officer.

The subject's wife was found in a nearby car with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

Detective Falcone had served with the Poughkeepsie Police Department for 18 years. He is survived by his parents.

Detective Falcone was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective. Route 9 in Dutchess County was renamed Detective John M. Falcone Memorial Highway in August 2014.

Bio

Age 44
Tour 18 years
Badge 22

Incident Details

Cause Gunfire
Weapon Gun; Unknown type
Offender Killed by self-inflicted gunshot during

hostage, shots fired call

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John Falcone Blood Drive draws 70+ donors amid blood shortage

Posted on FEB. 21, 2022
News 1

Poughkeepsie police helped secure 50 pints of blood to go toward alleviating the Red Cross’s worst blood shortage in years, and they did it with help from the memory of a fallen hero.

“It’s going to be a very busy event,” Poughkeepsie Police Detective Steven Cowles said as he checked in donors at Monday’s annual John Falcone Blood Drive at the Grandview event center in Poughkeepsie.

Falcone was shot and killed in February 2011 at the Poughkeepsie Metro-North train station during a struggle with a man who had just shot his wife a few blocks away, and was holding the couple’s 3-year-old daughter.

Monday’s blood drive was the 12th held in Falcone’s memory.

Detective Steven Cowles, a former colleague of Falcone’s, said Monday every year the event draws a mix of public servants who know Falcone’s story well, and others who did not know him, but learn about him.

“We do get a lot of law enforcement signups … county court employees, city of Poughkeepsie employees, so anyone who had contact with John,” he explained. “It’s also open to the public. We get a lot of online signups that way.”

Monday’s event was completely booked before it began.

Red Cross account manager Susan Sommer said the recently passed COVID-19 Omicron variant spike kept many people inside and, in turn, kept them from giving blood, creating a massive shortage in donated blood.

She was pleased with Monday’s turnout, and explained that she saw a connection: Detective Falcone gave everything, and on the anniversary of his death, people from his community gave something.

“He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Sommer said. “For the police department to be doing this blood drive every year in his honor is just such a wonderful, thoughtful memorial to what he did.”

Sommer said the Red Cross ended with 50 units of blood through the event, and the donations could help up to 150 people.

She added that the Red Cross is finally beginning to see an uptick in donations following the omicron spike.