By Mark Scott
Albany, NY – It was graduation day in Albany Tuesday for 74 new state troopers in New York. Grim references were made to the deadly shootings of two troopers in the past year. But some of the newly minted troopers say they're unfazed by the potential danger of their new jobs.
Connor Sutton, 27, of Ogdensburg says the tragedies of the past year made him "want to do the job more." He and his fellow academy graduates received a standing ovation from about 500 family, friends and other troopers in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.
Acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton welcomed them "to the long gray line."
Felton also introduced survivors of some troopers who had died on duty, including Barbara Brinkerhoff. Her husband David Brinkerhoff, a native of Hamburg, was killed in an April shootout at a rural farmhouse.
Governor Eliot Spitzer said the 74 stand on the shoulders of all the troopers that preceded them since 1917. Spitzer recalled how "fugitive Ralph Phillips cowardly opened fire" on troopers Joseph Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr. last September in Chautauqua County, wounding both. Longobardo later died.
"They did their duty and never gave up," Spitzer said.