Slain Jersey City Police Officer 'An American Hero,' His Son Says

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Some of the nation's highest-ranking members of law enforcement, plus thousands of police officers, attended Tuesday morning's funeral mass for slain Jersey City Police Detective Joseph Seals.

It was too crowded to get inside the church, so hundreds of officers waited outside in the pouring, freezing rain for hours. When Seals' casket passed, draped in an American flag, officers stood at attention and saluted. Many crossed themselves when his hearse passed.

Exactly one week from the date he was killed — shot once in the head in connection to the Dec. 10 shooting standoff in Jersey City —Seals was given final rites at St. Aedan's in Jersey City. The Bergen Avenue church is one of the most magnificent Roman Catholic cathedrals in the New York metropolitan area, and is the customary location for funeral masses for Jersey City police officers killed in the line of duty.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Gov. Phil Murphy, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito were all in attendance, as were Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Jersey City Police Chief Mike Kelly. Streets around the cathedral were closed down for as far away as twenty blocks on Tuesday morning.

Seals, 39, who lived in North Arlington, leaves behind a wife, Laura Seals, and five children. His younger son, wearing a police hat that was too big for him, saluted his father's casket as it was carried out of the church and into the hearse.

Few reporters were allowed into the church for the service. Inside, Seals' 15-year-old stepson Adrian Junco-Seals, a high school sophomore, spoke about his stepfather. According to USA Today, the teen described him as "a great man in and out of work. He will forever be remembered as an American hero."

Members of the Jersey City police department were out in force. Many of them worked closely with Seals, and some declined to talk about him, saying it was too difficult. Others were very chatty and described a dedicated, cheerful young detective.

"He was a worker, that's for sure," said one unnamed Jersey City police sergeant, who said he worked with Seals a few times on the midnight tour. "He got the job done. I'd always see him and ask, 'Hey Seals, what kind of top-secret s*** you workin' on now?''

The JCPD usually puts its smartest, most capable officers in the plainclothes detail, the sergeant said.

"If you're a worker, yeah, that's where they gonna put you," he said. "You get guys like him in those key positions — you know you're gonna get results. Arrests. Getting criminals."

Another JCPD police officer recalled growing up with Seals in Bayonne.

"We went to different high schools, and Seals was one year older than I was," said the officer. "He was one of those guys who didn't really stop. You gave him a job and he took it seriously. He got it done. He actually really liked this job."

Seals often worked plainclothes details. When he was killed, just past noon last Tuesday, Dec. 10, he was reportedly in Bayview Cemetery meeting a confidential informant to discuss a drug case. It was then that he noticed a suspicious U-Haul that was wanted in connection to this Bayonne murder. He approached the U-Haul and was shot once in the head, by either David Anderson, 47, or his co-conspirator Francine Graham, 50.

After allegedly shooting Seals, the two suspects then went to a kosher Jewish grocery store. They shot the grocer's wife and two people inside, killing all three, and then holed up in the store. From there, they held an hours-long shooting standoff with Jersey City police. Several other officers were hit by the gunfire, but all survived.

It wasn't just police who came out Tuesday: A paramedic for the Jersey City Medical Center stood in the pouring rain, water dripping off his nose and jacket. He recalled responding to several emergency calls with Seals.

"I would see him at work in passing. Police and EMS work very closely together on a lot of calls," said the EMT, who said he couldn't give his name. "When I heard it was him, my heart stopped. I was devastated. But he prevented a lot more people from being killed that day by disrupting their plan."

Det. Antonio Aviles, now a police officer in Kissimmee, Florida, grew up in Jersey City. His childhood friend is now a Jersey City police officer, and was one of the hundreds of officers who responded to the shoot-out last week. His friend specifically asked him to come north for the funeral today.

"My friend worked in the South District with (Seals)," said Aviles. "He wasn't hit, but he helped pull other officers to safety. He hasn't been cleared to return to work yet. It's been hard."

The EMT agreed. The Jersey City Medical Center provided counseling to all its paramedics after the events of last week.

"What's helped is the way the city came together after this happened," he said. "There was an interfaith vigil at a synagogue on JFK Blvd. last week. That helped."

Thousands of cops nationwide descend on Jersey City Tuesday

Police came from as close by as Secaucus and Union City and from as far away as Oregon, Texas, Boston, Cape Cod and Florida. All the officers were in uniform displaying what city they came from, with a black band over their badge number to represent a fallen officer.

"It's a brotherhood," said Matt Deickmann, a patrolman with the Baltimore city police department. "And this happened just a few days before Christmas. And now you've got five kids who don't have a father."

"It always hits home," agreed fellow Baltimore police officer Volmy Lizardo. "Any day, it could happen to any of us, at any time."

Watch the funeral procession for Det. Seals: