Police officer Andy Chan was remembered as a man whose presence was larger than life during his funeral service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Chan died at the age of 55 in early December, nearly seven years after he was critically injured while riding his motorcycle to work as a highway patrol officer. He suffered a major brain injury when a driver hit him in Northeast Philadelphia in January 2019.
“Some people become legends only after they leave us,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said during the service. “But Andy was not one of those people. Andy lived as a legend.”
Chan served as a police officer in Philadelphia for 24 years and was posthumously bestowed the Medal of Excellence by Bethel, “for significant and sustained achievements.”
But for those closest to Chan, he leaves behind a legacy as more than just a decorated officer.
“We all know Andy as a super cop. But he wasn’t just a super cop. He was a family man,” his wife Teng Chan said Tuesday. “He loved his family with no bounds.”
Hundreds of police officers are in the city to say goodbye to Chan, whose funeral services began Monday night with a viewing at the Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church in Philadelphia.
“He was just a great person to everybody… and if you were his friend, you were his best friend, that’s the kind of guy he was,” Katherine Ngee, who went to school with Chan at Holy Redeemer, said.
Early Tuesday morning, a funeral procession escorted Chan’s horse-drawn casket from the John F. Givnish Funeral Home to the Philadelphia Public Services Building before continuing on to the Basilica.
Chan will be interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
