John O’Keefe, the victim in the Karen Read trial, was a veteran officer and devoted father figure

CANTON, Mass. (AP) — Who was John O’Keefe, the man whose death led to a Massachusetts murder trial attracting national attention? For 16 years he was a Boston police officer, but to those who loved him, he was Johnny or J-J, and some affectionately called him the Godfather. His girlfriend Karen Read, now accused of killing him, once called him “the patron saint of Canton.” That’s the Boston suburb where, at the time of his death at 46, he was raising his niece and nephew after their parents died. O’Keefe also was a devoted godfather to his best friend’s son.