ELWOOD, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — There is shock and sadness in a Long Island community following the death of an NYPD officer who was struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver on the Long Island Expressway in Queens early Tuesday morning.
Anastasios Tsakos, a 14-year veteran of the NYPD, had just moved to Elwood from Queens last summer with his wife and two children — a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.
"They left Queens because they were looking for a nice yard so the kids can play," his next door neighbor, Simone Giancalone, said. "He was super dedicated. Every spare time he had, he played with his kids. We feel helpless right now."
His neighbors say the 43-year-old officer, who went by Taso, was the nicest guy you could ever meet and was always helping others in the neighborhood, including buying them groceries and bringing them soup when they were sick.
"Just an amazing, beautiful family. They moved in last summer and they came in and treated us like we've known them for 20 years. Just so welcoming, so friendly," Rosemarie Giancalone said. "He just would do anything for you. We were all quarantined a couple of months ago, we all were sick and Taso brought over food for us, he would call us."
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Tsakos, who lived in Greece as a child, learned woodworking and also helped his neighbors with the molding in their house.
"He made a beautiful table for his kitchen, there's a couple of benches in the back that he built, and he was looking in six years to retire and go into woodworking as a second career," Simone Giancalone said.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone is also mourning the loss of the veteran officer.
"Our hearts are broken today in Suffolk County. As a father, I can't imagine the pain and the grief this family is going through right now. We're thinking about them, we're praying for them and this is such a tragedy, it's a senseless tragedy," Bellone said.
To his fellow officers, Tsakos was known as a "cop's cop" and a good guy.
"Members of his unit that knew him for years described him as the best of the best, described him as a person who would never ask why, just 'What do you need done?'" Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Taskos was diverting traffic away from an earlier fatal single-car crash on the Long Island Expressway when he a 2013 Volkswagen swerved to avoid other 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.
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, was arrested and is facing a long list of charges including vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal crash.