Body of Ocala Police Chief escorted to funeral home

OCALA, Fla. - The body of Ocala's Police Chief was escorted to a funeral home on Tuesday. 

Chief Greg Graham was killed in a small plane crash over the weekend.

Members of law enforcement lined the streets, saluting as officers passed by surrounding the vehicle Chief Graham was in.

Marion County deputies said that they and the Marion County Fire Rescue responded to the 9700th block of Southwest 140th Avenue in Dunnellon in reference to a plane crash on Sunday morning. 

When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the single-engine plane and the pilot, who officials were able to identify as Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham. He was the sole occupant of the plane. 

In a news release, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said that "the family of Chief Greg Graham, Ocala Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s Office and all who knew Chief Graham experienced a tragedy today. Right now, the focus is to assist his family and his family in blue who are impacted by his sudden and tragic loss."

The NTSB is investigating the crash.

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Graham had been chief since 2012, after working for many years in the department and rising to deputy chief.

He had left the Ocala Police Department in 2008 to become police chief in Ceder Rapids, Iowa. He was the person to be selected chief from outside that agency in 30 years, the newspaper reported.

During his stint in Iowa, he guided the department through rising flood waters in June 2008. He told the Star-Banner then that the experience was “trial by fire.”

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“I feel like I’m back in Florida during the 2004-2005 hurricanes we had, and we had to get ready for them,” he said then.

He returned to Florida when the Ocala police chief resigned in late December 2008.