ROME, N.Y. — The parents of slain Syracuse Police Officer and Rome native Michael E. Jensen joined Rome Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan and Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, D-119, earlier this week at Rome City Hall to announce state money towards the construction of the Michael E. Jensen Legacy Center.
Paul and Michelle Jensen were on hand on Thursday as Buttenschon presented a ceremonial check for $500,000 in state funding she had secured for the Michael E. Jensen Community Center, a transformative new recreation and civic hub being developed by the city of Rome in their son’s memory.
The project, when completed, will feature the largest indoor turf field in the region, a 10,000-square-foot childcare center in partnership with Oneida County and ICAN and multipurpose spaces designed to host community events, sports leagues and youth programs.
“During my mayoral campaign developing a new recreation center was part of the platform I ran on,” Lanigan said. “We have terrific recreation centers and parks throughout Rome, but we wanted something indoors as well. Maybe something indoors if there was a rainout during a graduation at Rome Free Academy, for example.”
The Legacy Center, will be constructed on Floyd Avenue near Mohawk Valley Community College’s Rome campus. The site had previously been intended for The Tri-Valley YMCA’s Rome expansion.
“I knew the YMCA had pulled out of the area and we had found our spot,” Lanigan said.
Before becoming mayor, Lanigan worked as a police officer with the village of Vernon. He then served in the Rome Police Department’s patrol division before retiring as a detective in 2022.
“I never knew Mike personally, but knowing the sacrifice he made as a police officer and the legacy of service he left helped us decide the center’s name,” Lanigan said.
Jensen, 29 and Lt. Michael Hoosock of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office died on the evening of Sunday, April 14, 2024, during a standoff with an armed gunman in the town of Salina (a northern suburb on Syarcuse) in Onondaga County.
Michael Jensen was born on Dec. 7, 1994, in New Hartford. He graduated from Rome Free Academy in 2013 and later attended Le Moyne College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business in 2017 and his master’s in business administration in 2018.
Jensen played soccer, hockey, and baseball at Le Moyne and in amateur leagues afterward. He worked as an accountant for four years before joining the Syracuse Police Department. Jensen enrolled at the Syracuse Regional Police Academy in August 2022.
Law enforcement and first responders from around Central New York gathered to honor Jensen’s End of Watch at a Mass of Christian Burial at the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist Church in Rome on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
Jensen’s father, Paul, has worked as maintenance supervisor at Jervis Public Library in Rome for 30 years. He said the center would help reflect his son’s love of the city.
“When he was young he and his friends would always be around Franklin Field, playing sports and riding bikes. Always riding their bikes,” Paul Jensen said. “They enjoyed playing wall ball. He was a quieter person, not always the leader but he enjoyed his sports.”
Paul Jensen said the center will also keep his memory alive for he and his wife, Michelle. “It’s been tough,” he said. “I just lost my mother recently. We appreciate life more since his passing.”
Hoosock had served with the sheriff’s office for 16 years. He was promoted to deputy sheriff sergeant in 2015 and, in 2021, transferred to the criminal investigations division as a detective sergeant. In 2022, he became the bomb squad commander for the sheriff’s office.
Hoosock also volunteered as a firefighter and paramedic with the Lyncourt Fire Department from 2002 to 2007 and with the Moyers Corners Fire Department since 2007. He was married with three children aged three, five and seven. Authorities and family members laid Hoosock to rest on Monday, April 22, 2024.
“The Hoosock family has become a second family to us through all of this,” Paul Jensen said.
According to a report released by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, on April 14, around 8 p.m., Jensen had attempted earlier to pull over a car outside a house in the city of Syracuse. The driver refused to stop and sped off.
The police officers tracked the license plate to the address in nearby Liverpool and requested assistance from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.
Officers were inspecting the vehicle and moving around the house when they heard what sounded like a gun being manipulated, and they took cover, Cecile said.
Inside the house, the shooter, whom authorities later identified as Christopher Murphy, told a friend police were not going to arrest him and that the friend needed to leave. The friend ran from the house and was apprehended, authorities said.
Hoosock was looking for cover behind a maple tree in an adjacent yard when he was ambushed. The suspect fired from a back deck, Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley said.
“We believe the first officer shot is a sheriff’s deputy in the rear of the house. And I don’t believe he knew what was coming,” Fitzpatrick said.
Jensen was struck after the shooter went to the front of the house and fired on Syracuse police officers with an AR-15-style rifle. Jensen and other officers returned fire, police said.
Fitzpatrick said Jensen was struck near the armpit in an area not protected by his vest.
Emergency personnel transported Jensen, Hoosock, and Murphy to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile said all three were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Lanian, Cecile and Buttenschon joined Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and Sen. Joe Griffo, R, C-Rome to dedicate a portion of Route 46 along Black River Boulevard in Jensen’s honor on Tuesday, Sept. 30. The dedicated roadway spans from Prospect Street in the city of Rome to Dixon Drive in the town of Western.
“They say in law enforcement you die twice, once when you die and again when people forget your name,” Lanigan said. “Now young people are going to come to the center and ask who Michael Jensen was. They’ll get to know who he was and what his legacy is.”
