NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — An NYPD highway officer was struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver while investigating an earlier fatal crash on the Long Island Expressway in Queens early Tuesday morning.
The officer has been identified as 43-year-old Anastasios Tsakos.
Tsakos, a husband and father of two young children — a 6-year-old daughter and 3-three-year-old son, was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD and a highly-regarded member of Highway District Unit 3.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Taskos is dead following a "sensless and completely avoidable chain of events."
It all began with a single-car crash that occurred on the highway at about 12:30 a.m. near the Clearview Expressway.
Officers responded to the scene on the eastbound LIE where a vehicle had burst into flames after striking a utility poll.
"NYPD officers arriving on the scene encountered a car that was on fire, they rushed towards that car, broke the window and pulled people out of that car," Shea said.
There were three occupants in the vehicle. The rear passenger did not survive.
Shea said Tsakos and other members later arrived to divert traffic away from the crash site.
As Tsakos was directing traffic off of the highway around 2 a.m., Shea said a 2013 Volkswagen swerved to avoid vehicles, and then struck the officer head on as he was standing in the roadway next to his marked police car.
The driver kept going and was later apprehended by police.
"I think that when you see the images of her car and the windshield that is completely shattered, as well as damage to the front of the car there is no way to not know that you struck an individual," Shea said.
The officer was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
"We stand here this morning reminded once again in law enforcement there is no such thing as a routine job. We stand here devastated and trying to pick up the pieces of what is a shattered home and a shattered NYPD family," Shea said.
Jessica Beauvais, a 32-year-old woman from Hempstead who police say was intoxicated and driving with a suspended license at the time of the crash, is in custody.
Beauvais is facing a long list of charges including vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal crash, driving while intoxicated, and driving with a suspended license.
"It's a very, very painful moment," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Police Officer Anastasios Tsakos gave 14 years to this city, protecting people and that's what he was doing this evening. He was out there trying to make sure that everyone was safe and he is dead because someone drove under the influence and recklessly, someone drove with a suspended license, he's dead because he was at an accident where people had driven recklessly also with a suspended license. We see here a horrendous pattern. People doing the wrong thing and other people dead because of it, and one of them a hero officer who did everything right in his life for us and he is dead because of other people's negligence."
Mayor de Blasio said he and Shea had spoken to Tsakos' widow, Irene.
"A few hours ago she was looking forward to seeing her husband again and now she won't," the mayor said. "He leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter, a 3-year-old son. They will never see their father again because somebody did the wrong thing."
"Last night, when most of us were sleeping, there was New York City police officers out putting themselves at risk" Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said. "This officer was standing in the highway trying to rescue and help people from a previous car accident. You know, sometimes we look at police officers we focus on their uniform and we focus on the stern face that we have to put on to do our job professionally, but a day like today I think we have to take a moment to think about that under that uniform behind that stern face was a father, was a husband, was someone who was trying to put their life together for the future of their family."