Family, Friends Gather To Remember Officer Maguire

Family, friends and Woburn residents gathered to briefly honor on the one-year anniversary of his death Monday night.

Officer Maguire was after an armed robbery at on Dec. 26, 2010 during a blizzard. He fatally shot his killer, and three accomplices were later arrested and are awaiting trial.

"The family is doing better," Chuck Maguire, Jack's brother, told Woburn Patch prior to the gathering. "Thanksgiving was very hard."

"We're a together family and we're moving forward," he said later.

Last night, a crowd gathered at Kohl's, near the to remember the police officer who gave his life in the line of duty. Officer Maguire was felled by four gunshots near the post office, after blocking the suspect's getaway. The veteran patrolman was brought to Lahey Clinic where he later succumbed to his injuries.

"We remember Jack and his sacrifice," said Chuck Maguire. "Who knows what would have happened that night."

Since 1938, there has been a Maguire on the Woburn Police Department in some capacity, as Chuck and Jack's father Thomas was a patrolman and police chief in Woburn. This year, 2011, was the first without a Maguire at WPD.

House Rep. Jim Dwyer said prior to the ceremony that his "heart goes out to the Maguire family."

"You don't go a day without thinking about this tragedy," he said. "Tonight isn't going to bring him back, but it does honor his memory."

"This is something no police department should ever bear," said Dwyer.

Mayor Scott Galvin said the city learned a lot about itself in the year since Officer Maguire was shot and killed.

"The police department has shown its resilience," the mayor said. "The police have rallied together and we are grateful that we are where we're at today."

Police Chief Robert Ferullo, who was on duty and at the scene of the Kohl's shooting on Dec. 26, 2010, thanked many of the out-of-town officers who came to the department store parking lot Monday to pay their respects to Officer Maguire.

"Those three [police] cars coming down Washington Street were the greatest sight I ever saw," he recalled.

The chief asked the community and police officers to "keep Jack and his family in their prayers."

The Washington Street post office will soon , but details of the dedication ceremony or when it will happen have not yet been released. The Maguire family expects that it may happen sometime in the spring.