Bryan Joseph Johnson (1985-2012)

Bryan Joseph Johnson (1985-2012). A Legacy of Public Safety. When Bryan Johnson told people he was going to be the mayor someday, people believed him. He was easygoing, quick to smile and always willing to help a friend. Bryan grew up on State St., and his parents worked as corrections officers at Sing Sing. At Ossining High School he played varsity basketball and football, graduating in 2003. He attended Penn State on an academic scholarship, majoring in agriculture because he was interested in the food business. , By the summer of 2012, he was back living on State St. He'd enrolled in an online course to get his last few college credits and had just been promoted to night manager at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Tarrytown. , June 20 was a hot day. He drove two acquaintances to City Island in the Bronx for a boat ride. Bryan went out on the boat that night and, according to accounts, jumped into the water with everyone else. In what the media called “a boating prank gone wrong,” the driver left without him. Bryan drowned and was missing for six days. , But Bryan left a legacy. A year later, the Town of Ossining named the Bryan J. Johnson Memorial Boat Ramp in his memory. His mother, Sheila Lilley, and grandmother, Thomasina Laidley- Brown, worked with New York State Senator David Carlucci and New York State Assemblywoman Sandra Galef to pass Senate Bill Number 1639-A, which mandates boaters be over 18 and take a safety course. Another bill, Bryan Johnson's Law, allows judges to consider Boating While Intoxicated offenses in DWI cases; it passed the New York State Senate in 2018.