Correction Officers Remember Boy Scout Killed By Drunken Driver

RIVERHEAD, NY — Suffolk County correction officers put their hearts and hands together to keep the memory of Boy Scout Andrew McMorris, killed by a drunk driver, alive.

The correction officers, from B Crew at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead, recently raised money for a donation to the Andrew McMorris Foundation.

After holding raffles, 50/50 drawings, and donation drives, Correction Officer Robert Profetta and his fellow officers presented the McMorris Family with a donation of $1,200, a release said.

Andrew was walking down David Terry Road in Manorville with his Boy Scout troop when Thomas Murphy, of Holbrook, plowed into the boys, killing Andrew and injured three other Scouts.

In September, exactly two years to the day that Andrew was killed, Murphy, 61, who was convicted by a jury of driving drunk and killing Andrew in the 2018 crash, received the maximum sentence of eight and one-third to 25 years in prison.

In tribute to their son, the McMorris family created the Andrew McMorris Foundation. According to the foundation’s website, the mission is “to honor Andrew — whose life was full of kindness, leadership, creativity, achievement, and joy — by creating opportunities for education, advocacy, and change that honor his legacy. The foundation operates on the core values of kindness, empathy, and opportunity.”

Sheriff Errol Toulon said he was proud of he correction officers’ commitment to the community.

“While Suffolk County Correction Officers spend their careers inside the four walls of the correctional facility, their impact on the community transcends those walls. I appreciate their efforts to make a difference in Suffolk County and applaud their hard work, both inside and outside of the jail," he said.