Officers Eugene Marshalik, 19, and Nicholas Pekearo, 28, were on patrol on March 14, 2007, when they heard a call over the police radio of a heavily armed man who had just shot a bartender at a nearby pizza shop. When they observed the man heading toward Washington Square Park, they followed him at a distance and continued to radio in his location.
When the gunman saw an NYPD police car coming in his direction, he turned and saw the two officers crouched behind cars, walked back, and shot them both point blank.
“The fact that more people were not killed in Greenwich Village that night is in no small measure due to their heroic actions” according to then-Police Commisioner Ray Kelly.
Relatives of the officers, scores of NYPD and auxiliary police in full dress uniform marched down Bleecker Street to where the procession ended at the intersection of Sullivan and Bleecker Streets, where the corner was named after Marshalik and Pekearo.
The deaths of the auxiliary officers stunned the city and led to the purchase of
bullet proof vests for the members of NYPD’s auxiliary, who are unpaid civilian volunteers aiming to deter crime by providing a uniformed presence and acting as the “eyes and ears” of the NYPD.
Text by Ret. Auxiliary Police Officer Stephanie E. Phelan.
Photo credit: © Joel Gordon 2018—All rights reserved.
