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Buffalo, New York - Thousands of law enforcement officers are gathering in Saratoga Springs this morning for the funeral of New York state Trooper Joseph Longobardo.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) _ Thousands of police officersjoined the family of Joseph Longobardo at the funeral Monday forthe state trooper, one of three shot during the hunt for fugitiveRalph ``Bucky" Phillips.

Coming on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,speakers at the funeral _ including Gov. George Pataki and the headof the Albany Diocese, Bishop Howard Hubbard _ put Longobardo inthe company of the public servants who were among the 3,000 peoplekilled in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Highways were filled with police cruisers, motorcycles and vansas mourners traveled to this resort town north of Albany. Officersstood in ranks four deep along the tree-lined street where a hearsecarried Longobardo's body under cool, sunny skies to St. Clement'sRoman Catholic Church.

In dress blues and grays, officers wore the insignia of policeagencies from as near as Vermont and as far away as Canada andMichigan.

A bagpipe and drum corps led the procession, the kilted drummersbeating out a mournful cadence as the hearse was escorted by amarine, an airman, soldiers and troopers. The pipers played asomber version of the Marines' Hymn when the casket was carriedinto the church.

Inside the church, Longobardo's Air National Guard uniform,decorated with medals, hung to the side of the altar.

Hubbard, who celebrated the Mass, drew a link between themassive scope of the 2001 national tragedy and the death of asingle New York state trooper.

In the wake of 9/11, I think all of us are more aware of thegrave dangers all our public servants experience every time theydon their uniform," Hubbard said. ``We have come together to mournthe passing of another fallen hero who was also a victim of aterrorist attack."

Pataki called Longobardo a ``hero in the very truest sense ofthe word." The governor, who just hours earlier stood at GroundZero to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks, said Longobardoand other public servants should be honored in the same way as thepolice, firefighters and Port Authority agents who died on Sept.11.

``Yesterday, at the World Trade Center, we welcomed firstresponders from across America back to New York," Pataki said. ``Itold them that in swearing that oath and putting on that uniform,they had earned a place on a long line of heroes _ the men andwomen throughout our nations history that made America great andfree.

``Joe Longobardo shall forever have his rightful place on thatline."

``The Gray Rider statue outside the State Police TrainingAcademy in Albany bears the words: `Honor, Integrity, Courage,Tradition,"' Pataki said.

``To Joe Longobardo, those hallmarks of the New York StatePolice were more than ideals etched on a statue _ they were ablueprint for a life well-lived, and Joe lived his well indeed."

Longobardo, 32, never regained consciousness after he was shotin an ambush Aug. 31 as he and another trooper staked out a woodedarea near the home of Phillips' former girlfriend in ChautauquaCounty.

Phillips, who escaped April 2 from a jail in Erie County, eludedpolice for five months, stealing cars, breaking into homes andsheltering with friends and relatives until he was tracked down andcaptured Friday. A day before he was caught, Phillips was added tothe FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. Gaunt and exhausted, he appeared incourts in two counties Saturday to face the first of many chargesagainst him, including attempted murder.

The trooper shot with Longobardo, Donald Baker Jr., remains incritical condition at a Pennsylvania hospital. A third trooper,Sean Brown, has returned to duty after being shot in June nearElmira in the Southern Tier.

7 NEWS is in Saratoga Springs and we'll complete reports later todayat 5, 6 & 11pm.(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)APTV-09-11-06 1222EDT

First published: Monday, September 4, 2006

FREDONIA -- State Trooper Joseph Longobardo, a 32-year-old Middle Grove resident, died Sunday afternoon, almost three days after he was ambushed in the woods of western New York and shot in the leg.

At 3:35 p.m., just minutes after the trooper's father, Tony Longobardo, returned from a candlelight vigil held in honor of the wounded officer and another injured trooper, Joseph Longobardo died in Buffalo's Erie County Medical Center.

Longobardo, whose leg was amputated Saturday afternoon, died in a heavily medicated state, said State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett. He was never able to communicate with family or police after the shooting. He and his wife, Teri Longobardo, were due to celebrate a wedding anniversary Thursday, and they have a 1-year-old son, Louis.

Longobardo was standing watch around 6 p.m. Thursday in Pomfret near Fredonia with Trooper Donald Baker Jr., a 38-year-old Clifton Park resident and fellow Mobile Response Team member, when 11 shots were fired at them with a high-powered rifle.

Baker was shot in the abdomen. He was in serious condition Sunday night at Hamot Hospital in Erie, Pa., where he's undergone three surgeries. Both men are eight-year veterans of the State Police with the Loudonville-based Troop G.

Police believe the shooter was Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, a career criminal who escaped from Erie County jail in April and allegedly shot another state trooper in June. The ambush of Longobardo and Baker occurred in the woods behind the log cabin of Phillips' ex-girlfriend Kasey Crowe in Chautauqua County.

Crowe, her daughter with Phillips, and the daughter's boyfriend were among six people arrested for allegedly giving shelter, clothing and food to Phillips. Authorities said they were aware, based on witness interviews, that Phillips made threats against police after the Aug. 21 arrest of the three.

After the ambush, one of the wounded officers fired one shot at the attacker, but State Police Maj. Michael Manning said there was no evidence the gunman was hit.

Police have been combing the woods of Chautauqua County and searching hunting camps to find Phillips, who's left a trail of break-ins not only in New York, but in Pennsylvania and other states since he broke out of jail in April using a can opener. They continued the search Sunday, with a rotation of 280 officers halting cars at 22 checkpoints.

Several officers from Loudonville's Troop G -- mostly SWAT team members -- joined the manhunt this weekend, Bennett said. Many of them went back to work Sunday night after hearing at a 7 p.m. briefing that their colleague had died. Bennett said any of the troopers can step out of the search rotation if they don't feel up to working.

The death has affected the officers deeply, he said, especially the members of the MRT special weapons and tactics team, who removed team members Longobardo and Baker from the woods after the shooting.

"It's a wake-up call, I'm not going to tell you it's not," Bennett said. "Things changed between 3:34 p.m. and 3:36 p.m. today." Earlier in the day about 300 people joined Tony Longobardo, at the vigil for the officers at the Wesleyan Church of Hamburg. Law enforcement officials and politicians lauded the work of the two troopers and talked about the special bond between police officers as Joseph Longobardo spent his last few hours alive in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of ECMC 12 miles away. "As someone has said, it's a brotherhood. If something happens down in Albany, we're still going to support them here," said Suzi Smith, the organizer of the event and the widow of a state trooper, who died after contracting hepatitis during a drug arrest.

Tony Longobardo gave no comment to the mob of reporters who followed him toward the church exit after the service. Flanked by police officers, he stopped repeatedly for hugs and good wishes from total strangers. He was driven away in a State Police car just after 3 p.m.

Bennett said Longobardo was with his wife, parents and other family when he died. He didn't know when the Longobardos would return to the Capital Region.

Joseph Longobardo's killing, Bennett said, is classified as aggravated murder of a police officer, but police need more evidence to charge Phillips with the crime. If Phillips is apprehended, Bennett said, he will be charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting state Trooper Sean Brown on June. 10 in Chemung County. Brown, who was shot approaching a car Phillips was driving because it was parked on a roadside, recovered from his injuries.

The last confirmed sighting of Phillips was Aug. 27 in Chautauqua County. Police are searching three southwestern New York counties, but Bennett said he's sure Phillips is in Chautauqua County, where he has the support of family and friends. Bennett, who said the manhunt for Phillips is the longest and most complicated he's witnessed in 38 years with the state, wants Phillips to know Longobardo is dead.

"I want him to be fully aware that the ante was (pushed) up again because of something he did," Bennett said. "Yeah, I want him to be aware of it."

Police are offering a $225,000 reward for tips leading to Phillips arrest. Several Phillips sightings were reported Sunday, but Bennett said they were all cases of misidentification. Keith Greenberg, a producer for Geraldo Rivera's syndicated show, "Geraldo At Large," said he was mistaken for Phillips early Sunday evening at the Fredonia Wal-Mart. He's in town covering the manhunt.

Greenberg, a 47-year-old Brooklyn man with long hair and a mustache similar to Phillips', went to the Wal-Mart because he received a tip one of Phillips' relatives worked there. When he asked for the relative, Wal-Mart employees called police. Greenberg met up with them in the parking lot, where he was running to his van for a camera to film police vehicles tearing toward him.

After about five minutes, Greenberg said, police were convinced he wasn't Phillips.

"It all ended with a handshake," he said.

Joseph Longobardo, a graduate of Amsterdam High School and the College of Saint Rose, spent most of his State Police career in Fonda, but recently was assigned to the Wilton barracks. He was promoted to technical sergeant last year. Bennett said he'd been part of the Phillips manhunt on and off, but didn't know when he first reported for duty in Chautauqua County. Both he and Baker have worked with rookie troopers teaching defensive tactics at the State Police Academy. Longobardo was also a field training officer.

Longobardo was part of a 70-trooper contingent that tracked a Mohawk Valley man wanted for the stabbing murder of his mother in 2001. According to the 2001 Annual Report of the State Police, Longobardo chased and helped apprehend the suspect after a chase in Fonda.

Longobardo became a Marine in 1992, and five years later joined the New York Air National Guard's 109th Security Forces Squadron based in Scotia, Master Sgt. Timothy Kane said.

In the Guard, Longobardo provided security for air base defense missions and helped train and evaluate young soldiers, Kane said. He was a member of the Stratton Air Base Ravens team, which goes on classified missions, he said.

Just after 8 p.m., dozens of troopers, dressed either in their trademark gray uniforms or camouflage, silently lined up outside the barracks on Route 60 facing two bare flagpoles. Four officers raised the state flag and the American flag and lowered them to half-staff.

With their heads bowed, the group said goodbye to Longobardo with the moon shining overhead and one officer singing Amazing Grace.

Troop G headquarters in Loudonville was mostly dark Sunday night. Outside beneath the flag pole stood a memorial with 15 names of troopers from Troop G killed in the line of duty.

At the Clifton Park barracks, the U.S. flag and state flag had been lowered, backlit by two floodlights. In the parking lot, a trooper just shook his head and said, "Anytime one of our brother or our sister troopers passes away, it's a terrible thing."

Gov. George Pataki also issued a statement regarding Longobardo's death.

"Trooper Longobardo's death is a painful reminder of the great risks out state troopers face each and every day," he said.

Locally, the Law Dogs Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club announced that it will hold a benefit ride Saturday. Sept. 9, in Troy to help raise money for the families of Baker and Longobardo.

Kate Perry can be reached at 454-5092 or kperry@timesunion.com.