The nephew of a fallen NYPD officer beamed with pride Thursday as he received a special honor from Mayor Eric Adams himself.
Det. Dimitrios Kalbouros of Queens received his uncle’s shield during a surprise ceremony at City Hall.
Mayor Adams presented Kalbouros with the same shield number as that of the late Det. Kevin Czartoryski, a long-time NYPD member who died in 2010 after contracting pulmonary fibrosis and cancer related to his work in the rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Czartoryski (pronounced chot-oriss key), who lived in Maspeth, Queens, began his career in the NYPD in 1988 and was promoted to the rank of detective after serving in the Narcotics Division. In his two decades on the job, he made over 250 career arrests and earned a host of medals and City Council proclamations recognizing him for outstanding duty.
He was later assigned to the Hate Crimes Task Force and served in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI) as a community liaison for the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL). In that role, he primarily worked with members of the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
Following the attacks on and collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Czartoryski was one of the thousands of NYPD officers who took part in the rescue and recovery effort. Reportedly, he worked at a temporary morgue and sifted through the remains of the Twin Towers looking for remnants of victims. He was just 46 when he died.
Yet Czartoryski’s life of service and sacrifice inspired Kalbouros to pursue a career in law enforcement himself. He joined the NYPD in 2006, and was promoted this past June to the rank of detective specialist.
At City Hall on Aug. 7, Kalbouros was quite surprised to not only meet Mayor Adams but also receive his late uncle’s shield and shield number.
“When you go on patrol, you will be thinking of him even more now, because you’ll be wearing his shield, ” Adams said as he presented the metal shield to Detective Kalbouros.
Flanked by his parents and fiancée, Emily, the young detective was overjoyed as his mother pinned her brother’s shield on her hero son.
“It’s great to have my family remembered through my uncle, who was a hero,” Kalbouros said. “I feel like Superman. I’m on cloud nine. I love it.”
