PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Court security officer Frank McKnight was remembered as a man who lived his passion and that passion was serving his community.
He was the first face people who worked at the U.S. District Court saw in the morning and the last person they saw when they went home.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith, North Kingstown Police Chief Thomas Mulligan and U.S. Marshal Jaime A. Hainsworth held a gathering at the court Friday to remember their colleague who died Thursday evening after he was struck in the Washington Street crosswalk at Kennedy Plaza. The gathering was attended by people who work at the court house and people from the U.S. attorney generals office.
McKnight , 69, of North Kingstown, served as an Rhode Island Army National Guardsman. After serving 27 years as a North Kingstown police officer where he rose to the rank of lieutenant, he came to work at U.S. District Court as a special deputy United States Marshal and court security officer where he worked for 13 years.
McNight, who was well liked in the North Kingstown community where he worked, had a soothing way of dealing with people, Mulligan said and he was sure he had brought his calm way of being to the U.S. District Court house.
Smith said McNight was the first person you saw when you went to the court house and “talked about the game with” in the morning.
Smith said that traffic and the speed of buses at Kennedy Plaza is a concern and he had spoken with the chief operating officer of RIPTA and members of its board. “We have to do everything we can to look at this tragedy and ask the question how we can do something to make sure this never happens again. That is what we are going to be doing immediately and going forward,” he said.
Copyright 2014 - The Providence Journal
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
