Cheektowaga Police officers are grappling with the sudden death of Chief Michael Sliwinski.
Just last week, the 30-year veteran of the department had made sure the memorial stones in front of Police Headquarters and a statue of an officer with a small boy were just right. Now they are flanked by flags at half-staff in memory of the chief himself.
"He was so proud to get that finished last week," said Assistant Chief Brian Gould Monday. "There's a monument to our K9. There's a monument to our fallen officers. There's a bronze statue of a police officer and a young child, that he made sure got done, got out there."
Inside the department is now a museum, also pushed by Sliwinski, who died Saturday of an apparent hear attack at age 55. He became chief in January of last year, after working his way up from a rookie officer in 1991.
"One of the things we have always stressed, and we will definitely stress it over the next couple days, is officer wellness," Gould said. "Police officers deal with tough stuff. We see the stuff people shouldn't have to see. We've done the death notifications, but it means a little bit more when it's someone you know, someone you work with every day, and we are making sure that we are keeping an eye on each other, offering each other support."
Speaking to reporters, Gould said his boss was everywhere in the town, everywhere in the department and even making sure feral cats were rescued and taken care of, like his own two cats.
"He's got a big smile on his face in all the pictures," Gould said. "He cared about the men and women in this police department. We were his family. He had a very small family, but to us, he had a very large family. He would always be here, making sure that everything was going well. If a call happened overnight, he didn't need the captain to call him in the morning and let him know because he heard it."
There will be a wake for Sliwinski Tuesday and Wednesday at his family's funeral home, where the chief also worked. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Thursday at St. Louis Roman Catholic Church in downtown Buffalo, with burial in St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga.
