NYPD Highway Officer Anastasios Tsakos (pictured) was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver on the Long Island Expressway in Queens early Tuesday
A New York City highway patrolman was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver with a suspended license while redirecting traffic after a fatal car accident in Queens.
NYPD Highway Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, was assisting other officers on the Long Island Expressway shortly before 2am Tuesday when a Volkswagen veered and struck him head on, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a joint press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Tsakos was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The driver, identified by police as 32-year-old Jessica Beauvais of Hempstead, sped away from the scene with a ‘completely shattered’ windshield before being apprehended by police.
She was photographed being walked out of the NYPD’s 107th Precinct in handcuffs on Tuesday afternoon in the same clothes she was wearing at the time of the crash.
Jessica Beauvais, 32, of Hempstead is walked out of the 107th Precinct in Queens after allegedly striking and killing NYPD officer Anastasios Tsakos on the Long Island Expressway
Jessica Beauvais, 32, faces vehicular manslaughter charges after allegedly striking NYPD police officer with her car on the Long island Expressway on Tuesday morning
Police say 32-year-old Jessica Beauvais was driving with a suspended license while intoxicated when she struck NYPD officer Anastasios Tsakos as he redirected traffic on the Long Island Expressway on Tuesday morning
Beauvais is seen arriving at Queens Central booking on Tuesday afternoon
32-year-old Jessica Beauvais, of Hempstead, faces vehicular manslaughter charges after striking and killing a 14-year NYPD veteran while driving with a suspended license and intoxicated, police said
Police are seen arresting Jessica Beauvais, 32, after she allegedly mowed down Tsakos and then tried to flee the scene just after 2am Tuesday
Officer Tsakos, 43, was redirecting traffic away from another fatal car crash (pictured) when he was hit. He was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead
Commissioner Shea said Beauvais was driving while intoxicated and with a suspended license.
She was taken into custody and faces several charges, including vehicular manslaughter, Shea said.
In video capturing her arrest, Beauvais looked distraught as she was handcuffed by police officers in front of a patrol car.
Tsakos (pictured) was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD and leaves behind a wife, a six-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son
Described as a ‘highly regarded officer’, Tsakos was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD and leaves behind a wife, a six-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son.
‘We stand here devastated trying to pick up the pieces of what is a shattered home and a shattered NYPD family,’ Shea said.
The commissioner called the accident a ‘senseless and completely avoidable chain of events’.
Mayor de Blasio said the fatal crash that Tsakos was called to also involved a driver with a suspended license.
Tsakos and other officers were on the scene redirecting traffic from a car that crashed into a utility pole, killing one passenger.
That was when Beauvais’ car swerved to avoid hitting other vehicles, striking Tsakos who was standing in the roadway next to his patrol car.
‘We see here a horrible pattern, people doing the wrong thing and other people dead because of it, and one of them a hero officer,’ de Blasio said.
‘[Tsakos] did everything right in his life for us and he is dead because of other people’s negligence.’
‘He did everything right in his life for us and he is dead because of other people’s negligence,’ Mayor Bill de Blasio said of Officer Tsakos at a press conference on Tuesday morning
Police said Beauvais was driving while intoxicated and with a suspended license. After striking Tsakos she allegedly fled from the scene before being apprehended by police
Tsakos had been called to the scene of another crash in which one passenger was killed after the car struck a utility pole (pictured)
Beauvais is walked into Queens Central booking on Tuesday afternoon