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HAMPTON BAYS, N.Y. — They descended in droves on the sleepy harbor town, rousing it from its winter hibernation for a solemn ritual. Thousands of police officers in dress uniforms gathered on Wednesday at a Long Island church to say goodbye to one of their own, a veteran New York detective killed in the line of duty.

The officers stretched from the Church of St. Rosalie in Hampton Bays as far east as the eye could see, stacked 10-deep in some places along Montauk Highway. With nothing but the lonely cadence of a bass drum, they stood at attention in stoic silence and raised white-gloved hands as a black hearse quietly passed through town. Clouds of breath rose above their salutes into a steel-gray sky.

Inside the hearse lay the coffin of Detective Brian Simonsen, shield number 3877, who was shot in the chest while responding to a robbery on a frigid night in Queens.