Although it’s been five years since the Niles Police Department lost three of its officers in a collision caused by a drunk driver, time has not lessened the loss, department leaders say.
“It was tough then, and it’s tough now,” Deputy Chief Thomas Fragassi told Pioneer Press. “It was a tough time when we dealt with three families who suffered a tragic loss.”
Retired Detective Joe Paglia, his best friend, Sergeant Joe Lazo, and Community Service Officer Michael White were riding their motorcycles in a charity event on July 18, 2020, when they were involved in a collision on a state highway just south of Kerrville, Texas, about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio.
“They were coming up on the crest of a hill when a drunk driver driving toward them struck the group of motorcyclists and they were in the lead,” Fragassi said.
The deputy chief explained that Paglia was the president, and Lazo the vice president, of the Chicago chapter of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, which supports the families of officers who have been seriously injured or killed in the line of duty.
Paglia, 52, and White, 28, were killed, and Lazo, 39, was seriously injured, but later died of his injuries. He was engaged to be married the next year, Fragassi said. A fourth man, identified in media reports at the time as Jerry Wayne Harbour, of Houston, was also killed in the incident, while three additional riders were hospitalized, police told the Chicago Tribune.
Ivan Robles Navejas, 29, later pled guilty to intoxicated manslaughter and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A Texas judge sentenced him to 80 years for intoxicated manslaughter, according to Texas District Attorney Lucy Wilke who prosecuted the case.
Lazo joined the Niles Police Department in 2008, and White, who served in the U.S. Army, joined the department in 2014. White’s father, Bill, is still an active firefighter in the village, Fragassi said.
Paglia had retired in 2018.
In memoriam, the Niles Police Department posted on its Facebook page, in part: “It is hard to put the impact of their loss into words and has had on our department. We miss them every day and they will never be forgotten.”
Deputy Chief Fragassi remembers that time well.
“I texted him the day before he left for vacation and said, ‘Hey Joe, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘Hi,’ but little did I know that would be the last thing I said to him,” Fragassi recalled.
Since the tragedy, he said the department always recognizes the lost officers on the day of their death, and a group of officers participate in the annual Move with MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) fundraiser in Schaumburg by walking with a banner picturing the names and likenesses of the fallen officers.
“We talk about it all the time to keep their memory alive,” Fragassi said of the accident and the department’s loss. “We also lost a guy in a rollover in 2025, and his badge number is on all of our cars and a memorial wall since he died on duty. We’ve lost a few to suicide too. In my 26 years, it’s been a rough go with loss.”
But police officers also remember the good times, he said.
“They were always a fun group of guys,” Fragassi said of Paglia, Lazo and White. “To lighten up this job, you have to joke around with each other, and they were always willing to be part of a prank.”
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.
