A hero’s homecoming for Riverhead cop seriously injured in line-of-duty crash March 31

Law enforcement agencies from across the county joined Riverhead Police and firefighters to welcome home Riverhead Police Officer Robert Sproston today following a 45-day hospitalization for injuries sustained in a serious line-of-duty accident.

Sproston, 28, was critically injured in the crash on Osborn Avenue March 31 as he responded to the area of a police pursuit on Sound Avenue. He was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he underwent several hours of lifesaving surgery. Police arrested the Middle Island man they said led officers on the high speed chase from Southold into Riverhead.

Dozens of police motorcycles led a long line of police and fire department vehicles, lights flashing and sirens blaring, as they brought Sproston home to Calverton.

Riverhead Fire Department and Rocky Point Fire Department ladder trucks displayed a giant American flag at the intersection of Twomey and Riley avenues, near the Riverhead Fire Department Calverton substation.

In a display of impeccable timing, just after the Riverhead ambulance carrying the injured officer passed under Old Glory, three military aircraft from the 106th Rescue Wing in Westhampton flew overhead. The aircraft —  an HC-130J Combat King II search and rescue airplane and two HH-60G Pave Hawk search and rescue helicopters — took to the skies of Suffolk today, flying over area hospitals to salute front line workers. They had just flown over Peconic Bay Medical Center and were en route to Port Jefferson and Stony Brook.

Sproston, a Marine and volunteer firefighter with the Riverhead Fire Department, became an officer in the Riverhead Police Department in June 2017.

The escort took Sproston home from St. Charles Rehabilitation in Port Jefferson, past the Rocky Point Fire Department, where he was a volunteer firefighter before he moved to Calverton.