Police funeral for slain OPP officer to be held Jan. 4
Posted Dec 29, 2022 2:45 pm.
A police funeral will be held on Jan. 4 for OPP Const. Grzegorz (Greg) Pierzchala who investigators say was ambushed while responding to a call earlier this week.
The OPP say details for Pierzchala’s funeral will be “announced once they have been finalized.”
A procession will take place on Friday to escort his body from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto to Barrie, where the funeral will take place. The procession will depart at 9 a.m. and travel northbound on Highway 400 to Barrie.
Police say members of the public can show their respects from one of the many overpasses along the highway but warn drivers not to stop on the highway and leave heir vehicle.
Pierzchala, 28, responded to a vehicle in a ditch west of Hagersville, Ont., on Tuesday afternoon when he was fatally shot.
Randall McKenzie, 25, and 30-year-old Brandi Crystal Lyn Stewart-Sperry are each facing a charge of first-degree murder in his death.
Related: Family of suspected cop killer expresses condolences to family of officer killed
Police say McKenzie was under a lifetime firearms prohibition and had been charged in 2021 with several firearms offences and assaulting a peace officer.
A warrant had been issued for this arrest and additional charges were laid after he failed to show up for a court appearance in September.
A frustrated OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique called Pierzchala’s death preventable, adding “something needs to change.”
“Our police officers, your police officers, my police officers, the public deserve to be safeguarded against violent offenders who are charged with firearms-related offences,” he said.
Pierzchala is the fourth officer in Ontario to be fatally shot since September.
With files from John Marchesan of CityNews; and The Canadian Press
