Mayor Bill de Blasio called the death of a veteran NYPD officer killed early Thursday when he crashed his motorcycle on his way to work “a very, very painful moment for all of us.”
Speaking at a press conference in Brooklyn Thursday morning, de Blasio called the 42-year-old cop, whose name has yet to be released, “a brave police officer who serves us and who we have lost so early in his life” and then asked for a moment of silence in the officer’s honor.
“Today when you see members of the NYPD, please extend your condolences to all of them,” the mayor said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their family.”
Police say the officer — who was assigned to NYPD’s Highway Patrol Unit 2 and had 16 years on the job — was traveling to work in the westbound lane of the Belt Parkway near the Merrick Boulevard exit around 5:30 a.m. when he struck a guardrail and fell off his 2011 Yamaha motorcycle.
The cop, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, was found lying in the left lane of the parkway, unconscious and unresponsive, authorities said.
He was rushed to North Shore hospital in Nassau County, where he died.