JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The public is invited Tuesday to pay their respects to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office corrections officer who was killed at a truck stop 10 days ago on Jacksonville’s Northside.
Officer Brad McNew’s memorial mass will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Old St. Augustine Road in Jacksonville.
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The mass will be followed by a procession to Hardage-Giddens Oaklawn Cemetery where there will be a 21-gun salute, a flyover, and other tributes.
The memorial events are all open to the public, and the community is also invited to pay their respects by lining the sidewalks around the church.
A viewing for family, friends, and JSO family was held Monday night.
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McNew, a 24-year veteran, leaves behind his wife, Elda, and son, Liam, and was very active with his parishes' choirs, St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Jacksonville Beach, and St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church in Jacksonville.
He also worked with the Fletcher High School Marching Band when he was off-duty.
Sheriff T.K. Waters says the department wants the officer’s family to know just how much McNew meant to the agency.
“We want to do everything we can to let them know how valuable he was to us, so the upcoming events are for that family and to honor him and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure they recognize who he was to us and his corrections family,” Waters said.
He called McNew the “ultimate public servant.”
“They’re hurt at the loss of a friend, a fellow public servant and a family member quite frankly. We are more than just co-workers here. We step into a situation where we will defend this community with our lives if need be and he did that,” Waters said." He was off. He was in his T-shirt. He could have just let it go.”
Police arrested the man accused of shooting McNew after a 24-hour manhunt that ended in North Carolina. He’s currently being held there without bond, awaiting extradition to Florida to face charges.