NYPD officer killed by alleged drunk driver on LIE in Queens

NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver in Queens early Tuesday. NYPD photo

By David Brand

An NYPD officer was killed early Tuesday morning after an alleged drunk driver crashed into him while he was directing traffic on the Long Island Expressway near Francis Lewis Boulevard, police said.

Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, was diverting drivers from a previous fatal crash on the LIE when motorist Jessica Beauvais struck him with her 2013 Volkswagen and drove off around 2 a.m.

Beauvais, who was driving with a suspended license, was stopped by police and arrested a short time later. She is charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and various other charges. She had not yet been arraigned in Queens Criminal Court as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.

“We stand here devastated and try to pick up the pieces of what is a shattered home and a shattered NYPD family,” said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea during a press briefing outside New York-Presbyterian Queens, where Tsakos was treated and pronounced dead.

Shea said the hit-and-run was the result of a “senseless and completely avoidable chain of events” that began after another driver without a valid license struck a telephone pole at 12:30 a.m., killing a backseat passenger near the Clearview Expressway exit. Tsakos, a Highway Unit office with 14 years on the force, responded to that crash and was directing drivers past the charred vehicle when Beauvais veered into him, Shea said.

Tsakos leaves behind his wife, Irene,  and two children, a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son.

“It’s a very, very painful moment,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “He was out there trying to make sure everyone was safe and he is dead because someone drove under the influence, and recklessly, because someone drove with a suspended license.”

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said fellow officers described Tsakos as “a cop’s cop.”