Metro

More than 5,000 attend funeral of Nassau County cop gunned down on Cross Island

Slain officer Arthur Lopez.

Slain officer Arthur Lopez. (AP)

Thousands of mourners today packed a Long Island town to lay to rest the hero Nassau County police officer shot and killed during a traffic stop Tuesday.

His patrol car — with the words “In memory of Police Officer Arthur Lopez” — led a procession of fellow officers, bagpipers and grieving family members to St. Christopher’s Church in Baldwin.

A silent of sea of blue — an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 mourners, representing scores of police departments — watched as the coffin, draped in a navy blue Nassau County Police Department flag, was carried into the church.

Lopez’s mother became inconsolable when the pipes started playing “Amazing Grace.”

Police say Lopez, 29, was shot and killed by an ex-con who had fled the scene of a car accident. The alleged gunman, Darrell Fuller, jumped into a second car and killed its driver before speeding off, police said. He was arrested Tuesday in Queens.

Lopez “saw a simple traffic infraction that he believed to be leaving the scene of an accident, and he took action,” Nassau County Police Chief Steven Skrynecki said. “That’s the kind of person he was — the type of person who could not observe an infraction and not get involved.”

He was posthumously awarded his department’s highest honor, the Medal of Valor — which has been given only 37 times since the Nassau Police Department was established in 1925.