Funeral services are set for a New York City police officer known for publicly forgiving a teenage gunman who in 1986 left him paralyzed from the neck down.

Mourners will gather Friday morning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan to remember Detective Steven McDonald.

McDonald, 59, who suffered a heart attack last week, died at a Long Island hospital on Tuesday. He had remained on the New York Police Department’s payroll as a detective until his death, but was best known as an international voice for peace and a source of support for other wounded police officers.

McDonald was on patrol on July 12, 1986, when he spotted bicycle thief Shavod “Buddha” Jones and two other teenagers in Central Park. When he moved to frisk one of them, the 15-year-old Jones shot McDonald three times, with one bullet piercing the officer’s spinal column.

About six months later, McDonald made a statement that defined the rest of his life: “I forgive him and hope he can find peace and purpose in his life.”

In the years following the shooting, McDonald met with Pope John Paul II and Nelson Mandela, and sat for an interview with Barbara Walters. He also took his message of forgiveness to Israel, Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

After Jones was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder, McDonald spoke of his hope that the pair would go on speaking tours together to offer a mutual message of peace. But shortly after Jones’ release from prison in 1995, he died in a motorcycle accident.

(AP)