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PA Senate To Vote On Bill To Rename Bridge After Fallen Officer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- New bi-partisan legislation honoring a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty will now make it's way to the state Senate after passing through the House.

If passed, the bridge crossing the Frankford Creek, near Castor Avenue and East Wyoming Street, would become the Officer Gary Frank Skerski Memorial Bridge.

"Skerski was one of those individuals that was loved and endeared by all folks in the community, because he was the community relations officer," said State Representative Jason Dawkins, who wrote the bill. "He was very popular and known in the community which I was born and raised in."

The bill is co-sponsored by neighboring state reps Angel Cruz and John Taylor

"The intersection that we are looking at actually is, uniquely, where kind of all three of us meet," Dawkins said.

Skerski was shot and killed responding to an armed robbery inside of Pat's Cafe on Castor Avenue in May 2006.

He was a 16-year-veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department.

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