By Katie Vasquez
ASTORIA, N.Y. — More than 120 years after Detective Sergeant John Sheridan was killed in the line of duty, his grave at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery has finally been marked with a headstone.
For cemetery volunteer Anthony Pisciotta, making sure Sheridan was remembered was a matter of honoring a man who gave his life serving New York City.
“It’s shameful that anybody have an unmarked grave, but it’s shameful if it’s a person that fell in the line of duty, in service to the city,” Pisciotta said.
Sheridan was working in Long Island City in 1902 when he spotted two suspicious men. He sent his partner ahead to stop them, but one of the men confronted Sheridan and shot him.
Sheridan was killed in the line of duty.
Three men were arrested and charged with murder, but the suspects were acquitted at trial.
For years, Sheridan’s grave in Astoria remained unmarked.
Pisciotta eventually stepped in to change that, working to secure a headstone for the fallen detective.
“It feels like I accomplished something. We accomplished something,” Pisciotta said.
Brotherhood for the Fallen New York City helped fund the marker, which can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Jason Marsman, a member of the organization, said the effort is part of a larger mission to ensure fallen officers are not forgotten.
“It’s unsettling to know that these people were just lost to history, really,” Marsman said. “And 100 years from now, could that be one of us?”
Sheridan’s family still has reminders of the officer he was. His great-granddaughter, Loretta Sheridan, has his badge and one of his nightsticks.
She never knew her great-grandfather. Sheridan’s son died in 1949, before Loretta was born, leaving her to learn about him through stories passed down through the family.
“My father’s father was his son,” she said. “He died in 1949, well before I was ever born. So, you know, we’re kind of getting stuff a little thirdhand by what my grandfather told my father.”
For Loretta, seeing Sheridan’s name finally marked at his grave was deeply meaningful — particularly because it was a stranger who took the initiative to honor him.
“I was really moved,” she said. “I think that’s a fantastic thing that he’s doing, not just for my family, but for all the families who he’s helping memorialize their loved one.”
Pisciotta hopes the headstone will ensure Sheridan’s story continues to be told.
“For future generations, people come here and see it and know who he was and maybe ask questions of what happened to him and how he lost his life,” he said.
Marsman said fallen officers deserve to be remembered in the communities they served.
“These are officers that walk these same streets that we do now, and they deserve to have, you know, a dignified burial place,” he said.
More than a century after Sheridan’s death, his grave is no longer unmarked — giving his family, fellow officers and future generations a place to remember his sacrifice.