The NYPD has lost its sixth detective to the coronavirus pandemic, The Post has learned.
Christopher McDonnell, a 54-year-old first-grade detective in the Intelligence Division, was confirmed Friday as the 44th member of the department, and the sixth detective, to succumb to COVID-19, according to the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association.
McDonnell left behind a wife and 14-year-old son Trevor — both of whom his friend and former partner said the detective adored.
“Not only [was he] one of the finest detectives I’ve ever worked with, but one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever met,” Detective Jeffery Ward told The Post.
McDonnell joined the NYPD in 1991 and worked in Staten Island, lower Manhattan and the Narcotic Division, according to the union.
Ward, who worked with McDonnell in the late 1990s through the early 2000s, said McDonnell “definitely earned the distinction of a first-grade detective.
“We call ourselves the greatest detaches in the world, and Christopher truly exemplified that,” he said.
The detective died May 6, but his positive-test result for the virus didn’t come back till Friday.
DEA President Paul DiGiacomo described McDonnell as a “constant professional” and the union will help his family as if he died on the job.
“This COVID virus is the invisible bullet, and we will treat [it] no different than if he was shot in the line of duty,” DiGiacomo said.
Seven uniformed members of the force, as well as 37 civilian employees of the department, have died from COVID-19, according to the NYPD.