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Thousands Mourn Police Sergeant Fatally Shot in the Bronx Thousands Mourn Police Sergeant Fatally Shot in the Bronx
(about 7 hours later)
MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — They came by the thousands on Thursday morning to this small church here, fellow officers, family members and many others who wanted to offer prayers and say goodbye to Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo of the New York Police Department, who was killed by a gunman in the Bronx last week. MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — On a street lined with split-level homes, small storefronts and trees in fall colors, thousands of New York City police officers stretched out for blocks, standing in formation as they waited in the morning chill for the hearse carrying their fallen colleague to arrive.
On the four-lane road in front of the St. Rose of Lima Parish church in this Long Island community, a long line of New York City police officers stood in formation. Blue ribbons were tied around the trunks of trees, and in a nearby schoolyard a couple of dozen American flags twisted in the chilly morning wind. Mourners filled the streets around the church. Last week, the colleague, Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, responded to a call about a domestic dispute in the Bronx, where a man held his estranged wife, another woman and their children at gunpoint. Soon, the authorities said, Sergeant Tuozzolo found himself confronting the man, who opened fire, striking him and another sergeant. Sergeant Tuozzolo, 41, became the first member of the Police Department to be killed in the line of duty in just over a year.
Last week, Sergeant Tuozzolo became the first member of the New York Police Department to die on duty in just over a year. He was the fifth to die in two years. On Thursday, thousands of mourners gathered under the vaulted wood ceiling of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church here on Long Island, where they mourned the sergeant, described as a family man dedicated to his wife and two young sons. He was also recalled as a 19-year veteran of the police force who sought to stay on the streets as he climbed ranks, even if it meant facing danger.
Many of the thousands of officers had come from the city, almost all in their dress blues. They were joined by officers from the New York State Police and departments on Long Island and from around the country. “Paul did not hesitate,” James P. O’Neill, the police commissioner, said in his eulogy, his voice freighted with emotion. “For the sake of his family in blue and for the sake of strangers, Paul kept moving toward the danger, moving toward the unknown, because that’s what we do.”
“He believed good should prevail over evil, and he worked to make it so,” Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill wrote in a tweet on Thursday. Sergeant Tuozzolo had been assigned to the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx for a decade, after working in the Manhattan neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Mr. O’Neill said he was the kind of sergeant who dived into the heavy workload of a busy precinct, doing his job without drawing attention to himself.
Mr. O’Neill will speak during Sergeant Tuozzolo’s funeral service, the first since he was named as commissioner in September. Mayor Bill de Blasio is also scheduled to attend. Colleagues remembered his usual response to a task: “I got it. I’m good.” He earned the respect of his fellow officers and his superiors for the passion he showed for the job.
Sergeant Tuozzolo was a 19-year veteran of the Police Department and had spent a decade in the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx. Msgr. Robert Romano, the department’s deputy chief chaplain, said: “He did know every day he put on the uniform there was that opportunity to show love to other people — show love by service and also show love by sacrificing his life.”
He lived in Huntington, about 15 miles from here, and is survived by his wife and two young sons. Last Friday, the authorities said, a man, Manuel Rosales, 35, charged into an apartment in the Bronx looking for his estranged wife. After his car was spotted a few blocks away, Sergeant Tuozzolo was among the officers who encountered Mr. Rosales, who was described by his family as troubled. He engaged them in gunfire. Mr. Rosales was fatally shot in the exchange.
Two mourners, Jeannine and Peter Daly, stood outside the church, moments before the funeral service. At the funeral Mass, Edward D. Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, shared a statement from Sgt. Emmanuel Kwo, the other sergeant at the scene, who had been shot in the leg.
“It’s a sad day,” Ms. Daly said. “We just came for our little support that we could give. They’re out there every day fighting for us.” “Paul saved my life, Ed,” Mr. Mullins said. “He saved my life. I was approaching that car, too. I would have continued to approach that car, just as Paul did. But Paul’s final words were a warning to me and my partner. He yelled to us, ‘Gun, gun, gun!’”
Addressing the church full of mourners, Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Sergeant Tuozzolo’s actions. “He chose to put on the uniform and stand between all of us and the danger we face,” he said. “In his final act on this earth, he served in an exemplary fashion — doing his all, giving his all, for all of us.”
Sergeant Tuozzolo was raised in Bayville, N.Y., on the Long Island Sound, and he moved about five years ago to nearby Huntington, where he and his wife, Lisa, were raising their two sons, Austin and Joseph, both under age 5.
Here in Massapequa, about 15 miles from Huntington, blue ribbons were tied to tree trunks and the front porches of homes. Purple and black bunting was hung over the hood of school buses, and in one nearby schoolyard, two dozen American flags twisted in the morning wind. At a pizzeria, workers wore “Blue Lives Matter” T-shirts, and at a deli a few doors down, signs drawn in crayons said, “We Love Our Cops.”
“It’s a sad day,” said Jeannine Daly, who stood outside the church with her husband, Peter Daly. “We just came for our little support that we could give. They’re out there every day fighting for us.”
Sergeant Tuozzolo was the fifth member of the Police Department to be killed in the line of duty in about two years. Relatives of the slain officers were among those who attended his funeral.
“Let’s remember the fear they have to grapple with, the uncertainty,” the mayor said. “Let’s remember the courage they summon, and why that makes them special in our city and in our society.”
Some expressed concerns about a disconnect between the police and some of the communities they serve, and worried it meant the work of officers and the dangers they faced were not appreciated.
“We live in a world today where people look at police officers as if they don’t amount to anything, that they don’t mean anything,” Monsignor Romano said. “When are people going to realize that these men and these women who put their lives on the line every single day are there for them?”
During the Mass, one of Sergeant Tuozzolo’s sons played with a Spider-Man action figure. His wife sobbed at various points, her face red and her hand clenched, resting over her heart.
Monsignor Romano sought to assure the sergeant’s loved ones that the support they had seen from other police officers and their families — “the family of blue” — in recent days would endure for years. The sergeant’s two young sons, he said, now had “many, many, many more aunts and uncles.”
Officer Anthony Saciolo, who had worked for Sergeant Tuozzolo in the 43rd Precinct, promised his widow but also his former boss that he would be among those who would watch out for the family.
“Your family has expanded immensely, probably by about 35,000,” Officer Saciolo said. “Anything you need, we got your family’s back, always and forever. Sergeant T., rest in peace.”