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Officer Darrell Burris, 37, died in a car accident on November 15, 2007 while off duty in Carmel, New York. The accident happened at 6:45 p.m. on Drewville Road when he lost control of his personal 2003 Toyota SUV vehicle and veered into an on coming SUV driven by 29-year-old Adam Warm of Patterson, NY, who had his 1-year- old son as a passenger. Burris was taken to the Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, where he was pronounced dead. Adam Warm and his son were taken to Danbury Hospital in Connecticut and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A 19-year-old Brewster man, Ethan Taublib, was also injured when he drove into the wreck and was treated at Putnam Hospital Center. Officer Burris died three days before his 38th birthday and one day before he was going to be promoted to Sergeant. Officer Burris was returning home from the hospital where he had some tests done when the accident occurred. Cold Spring has a part-time police department, with Burris as the only full-time officer. Officer Burris had been partnered with his K9 “Duncan” for only one year who was a black Labrador, who recently turned 3 years old. Burris and Duncan earned a trip to compete in the United States Police Canine Association’s National Detector Trials when they beat out 16 out of 17 teams from New York and Connecticut in the Region 7 Narcotics Detector Trials at the Orange County Sheriff’s K-9 Academy in Montgomery. When Officer Burris and K9 “Duncan competed at the United States Police Canine Association’s National Narcotics Detector Trials in Cloquet, Minnesota in May, 2007, against 79 teams of narcotics-detector dogs and their handlers, he finished fifth in the vehicle search narcotic detector category. The team is judged on how fast the dog can detect hidden drugs. Officer Burris said the success of him and his K9 “Duncan” were due to Sgt. David Campbell and Deputy James Cleary of the Orange County Sheriff’s Canine Academy, and Sgt. William Finucan of the MTA Police.
