Webster, N.Y. – More than 1,000 people attended a public reception at Webster Thomas High School following Lt. Mike Chiapperini’s funeral Sunday.
Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were shot to death while responding to a fire on Lake Road Monday morning.
Friends, family members and first responders from across the country gathered Sunday afternoon for a meal donated by local businesses and organizations.
After a week of heartache, Webster residents say they’re proud of how they’ve come together and grateful for the support pouring in.
"Even through their deaths, they have brought community together, and community not just being Rochester or Webster, it is the state and beyond, and the world,” said Kim Corpus, a Webster resident. “To hear the other night that 62 countries had responded with their condolences, that takes the world from being this big thing to this small connection."
