Former Bishop Stang Classmate Remembers Officer Sean Gannon

NEW BEDFORD - Sean Gannon, the Yarmouth Police officer fatally shot while serving an arrest warrant in Barnstable on Thursday, is being remembered locally.

Gannon grew up in New Bedford, and attended St. Mary's All Saints Catholic School. He graduated from Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth in 2003.

Former classmate and friend of Gannon, Father Riley Williams of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, tells WBSM News after they graduated, he and Sean went their separate ways, but were able to reconnect recently.

"A couple of years ago I was in another parish on the Cape. And I was driving down the road when suddenly a cruiser behind me put the lights on. So I pulled over and it turns out it was Sean," said Fr. Williams. "Luckily, he didn't have me for anything. He just wanted to say hi."

Fr. Williams remembers Gannon as warm, intelligent, and athletic. Gannon was on Bishop Stang's tennis and cross country teams, and was also a student ambassador, a member of the debate team, and a member of the organization Students Against Destructive Decisions.

Fr. Williams says it was providential that he celebrated morning mass at the Bishop Stang on Friday, as he does every week, where he was set to teach on the parable of the loaves and fishes, in which a young boy handed Jesus what little food he had, believing that he would feed the multitude.

"I kind of drew the analogy that in a sense Sean had given the Lord his all. Certainly, he had a lot of talents and his whole life ahead of him. But, I think that just offering his life to the Lord, not just yesterday, but his whole career as a police officer and handing it all over, he trusted into something higher."

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell also expressed his condolences on Facebook, saying "Sean represented the very best of New Bedford, and the prayers of our city are with his family and the Town of Yarmouth as they bear the sudden loss of this heroic young man."

Gannon is survived by his wife, Dara, parents Patrick and Denise Gannon, his brother, Timothy Gannon, and sister, Martha Gannon Souza. Gannon was 32 years old.

The Gannon family has declined comment at this time.