Suffolk County Police honor Officer John Nolan on 1960 death anniversary

Suffolk County police marked the legacy of Officer John Nolan, whose death after a burglary arrest in Central Islip has remained part of the department’s memory for more than six decades. Nolan died of a heart attack on April 17, 1960, after a foot chase involving a burglary suspect that began around 1 a.m. at a closed restaurant on Wheeler Road.

Nolan was 27 years old when he died. He had served with the Suffolk County Police Department for a little more than two years, carried badge No. 407, and was a United States Navy veteran. Memorial records list his survivors as his wife, three daughters and a son, a reminder that the line-of-duty death left a young family to carry the loss at home as well as the department did.

The Suffolk County Police Memorial Fund lists Nolan among the department’s fallen officers, and the Suffolk County PBA memorial page also honors John J. Nolan with an end-of-watch date of April 17, 1960. Those memorial listings place him alongside other officers remembered for dying in service, including Police Officer James Baryliski, who was working the same midnight tour when the burglary call came in on Wheeler Road.

Suffolk County police said they honor Nolan’s memory on the anniversary of his death, keeping his name visible in a department where remembrance is not limited to plaques and memorial pages. For officers still working the same roads in Central Islip and across Suffolk County, Nolan’s story remains tied to the risks of routine calls that can turn fatal in seconds.

His death also reflects an older era of Suffolk policing, when a single burglary investigation could unfold on foot in the middle of the night and end with a young patrolman collapsing after the chase. More than 60 years later, Nolan’s name still sits in the county’s police memory as a fixed point of sacrifice, service and family loss.