Hundreds of law enforcement officers and elected officials gathered on the Long Island Expressway between Exits 70 and 71 Tuesday to rename the Halsey Manor Road overpass the NYPD Detective Brian P. Simonsen Memorial Bridge in honor of a well-loved Riverhead native who was killed in the line of duty in 2019.

“What a beautiful turnout,” his widow, Leanne Simonsen, told the News-Review before the ceremony. “It’s such an honor, and I’m so proud of Brian, and I couldn’t be happier that this is happening. I am so grateful to all of my elected officials who got this going and supported this.”

Noting the hundreds of New York Police Department, Suffolk County and Riverhead PD officers on hand, along with the County Sheriff and representatives from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the New York City Fire Department, she said that “the family of blue is a very real thing.”

Ms. Simonsen said that New York State Sen. Anthony Palumbo and New York State Assembly members Jodi Giglio and Fred Thiele were particularly helpful in passing the legislation that led to bridge dedication. In what the Simonsen family and elected officials said was an unplanned twist of fate, Tuesday would have been Det. Simonsen’s 48^th birthday.

Ms. Giglio told the crowd gathered along the expressway that Mr. Simonsen’s “precinct in Queens was his home away from home, and he’ll always be a well-known and dearly beloved member of both the East End and the neighborhoods he protected in the 102nd Precinct. Detective Brian ‘Smiles’ Simonsen overcame many personal tragedies in his 42 years, earning his nickname for his tireless positivity, his love of life and how he naturally spread laughter wherever he went.”

Ms. Giglio went on to say that Mr. Simonsen, “epitomized the spirit of service, instinctually stepping forward to help anyone in need, whether they be loved ones or complete strangers … his memory lives on in all who loved him.”

Mr. Palumbo said Det. Simonsen was a role model in so many ways.

“Happy birthday, Brian. We miss you, we love you and you represent everything that is good when it comes to law enforcement and when it just comes to generally being human beings. We’re very proud of him.”

Det. Simonsen, who drove 70 miles in each direction from him home Riverhead to work in Queens, wasn’t even on duty on the night he was killed.

He had been in the city that day at a Drug Enforcement Agency delegates meeting — an inter-agency liaison role he served at the 102nd Precinct, according to his widow. Attending the morning meeting “counted as a day of work, so he could have been home mid-afternoon,” Ms. Simonsen told the Riverhead News-Review earlier this year.

But since he was planning a snowmobile trip that weekend with friends and didn’t want to take too much personal time, he decided to stay in Queens and work.

Around 6 p.m. on Feb. 12, 2019, Jagger Freeman and Christopher Ransom held up a T-Mobile cell phone store in Richmond, Queens, with a fake pistol.

Mr. Ransom was still inside the store when Det. Simonsen and Sgt. Matthew Gorman, both in plainclothes, reached the location the same time uniformed officers arrived. When Mr. Ransom aimed the fake weapon at them, police opened fire on Mr. Ransom — fatally striking Mr. Simonsen in the torso and hitting Mr. Gorman in the leg.

In the space of a few seconds, 42 shots were fired. Mr. Ransom was hit eight times but survived.

After their arrests, Mr. Ransom pleaded guilty to robbery and aggravated manslaughter and is serving 33 years in prison, according to court records. 

Mr. Freeman was convicted at trial of murder, robbery, assault and grand larceny and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. 

Soon after this death, his family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers launched the  Det. Brian “Smiles” Simonsen Memorial Foundation, which raises money to support a variety of causes, including scholarships for Riverhead High School students and donations of K-9 bulletproof vests — including one to a Riverhead Police Dept. K-9 named Onyx. The foundation also supports schoolchildren in the Queens community where Det. Simonsen worked. 

Mr. Simonsen got his nickname thanks to his infectious grin and his irrepressible enthusiasm,” Ms. Simonsen said in February. Asked to describe their marriage, she said that “in a nutshell, it was fun.

“He was just so fun.”