Deputy Tarsia Remembered 16 Years After His Murder

Area law enforcement officers, family, and members of the community are remembering the death of a Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy who was killed in the line of duty 16 years ago.

Kevin Tarsia, a 13-year veteran with the Broome County Sheriff's Office, was gunned down July 4th, 2002, by two men at Grange Hall Park in Kirkwood as he was in the middle of investigating suspicious activity in the parking lot.

Deputy Tarsia saw the three men, one of them the notorious killer David Sweat, transferring guns just stolen from a business in Pennsylvania, from one vehicle to another. Tarsia was shot over a dozen times.

The men were captured three days later and two of the men, including Sweat, were convicted of murdering the Deputy. Sweat was sent to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora where he and another prisoner escaped in the summer of 2015, leading authorities on a lengthy manhunt until the two inmates split up. After the inmates split up, Sweat was wounded and recaptured after Police shot and killed the other inmate near the Canadian border.

[via Officer Down Memorial Page]