Saturday was a day of reflection and honor as hundreds of active and retired NYPD members and their families gathered at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to remember police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their city.
At the NYPD’s Annual Day of Remembrance ceremony, retired Emergency Services Unit (ESU) Lieutenant Al Baker read the names of nearly 100 NYPD Special Operations Division (SOD) officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, dating back to 1896, when members of the city’s police force were known as “roundsmen” or “doormen,” all the way to 2024. Baker is also the head of REMA, a team of active and retired ESU members who organize the event every year.
“This is important to do every year because it’s not only the honor of representing the lost of members in the line of duty, but to be the person who speaks for them is probably the biggest honor that I could ever have in my life,” Baker said.
Spotlighting the fallen at Day of Remembrance
Baker focused on many end-of-watch SOD stories throughout NYPD history. These include P.O. Gary Coe of the Brooklyn South Task Force, who was stabbed to death by a man involved in a motor vehicle accident on Nov. 11, 1989. Coe was stabbed three times, taken to nearby Lutheran Hospital where he died within an hour. He was 26 years old.
SOD’s ESU lost 46 members since it was established in 1930, Baker said, as he elaborated on the unique, tactical, almost death-defying skills these officers use on the job every day.
“When citizens need help, they call the police,” Baker said. “But when cops need help, they call ESU.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, 14 ESU members lost their lives when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Many people – including civilians and rescue and recovery workers who were there that day and the months following — are still dying of 9/11-related illness. This include ESU Sergeant Paul Hargrove, who lost his life this year due to intestinal cancer that spread.
Hargrove’s was the most current name on the remembrance list, as he only died last month. His daughter, Theresa Hargrove-Moraglia of Nassau County, was at the ceremony and said how proud she was of her father, who was 77 years old when he died.
“This brings back all the memories,” Hargrove-Moraglia said, as she became emotional remembering her father. “It lets the families see what all these guys have done over the years. It’s a unique job. ESU is the elite group.”
Hargrove was sick for nearly three years. Family members said that doctors found concrete particles in the tumors they removed from his body.
Chief of Special Operations Division Wilson Aramboles, a former detective, sergeant and captain in ESU, was in attendance and thanked Baker and other members of REMA for organizing the event.
“Thank you to all the members of REMA for all your continued dedication each and every year for making this event as special as it is,” Aramboles said. “We never forget the sacrifices made by our members and their families.”
Although the focus of the event was on fallen officers, active NYPD SOD members still found time to make families in attendance smile. Many service animals were there, too; bomb-sniffing dogs and mounted-cop horses — all on site with their official NYPD-issued badges — took a break from the job to accept pets from happy humans of all ages.
Members of the Aviation Unit suited up to perform rarely seen by the public, exciting demonstrations, including air rescues and repels onto land and into the waters of nearby Sheepshead Bay.
NYPD’s Vintage Fleet was there with a variety of older police cars. Julio Martinez, a retired detective, brought his 1980 Volare marked police car.
“We want to keep the memory of the fallen officers alive,” Martinez said. “And our cars are here to show off the history of the department.”
Other NYPD cars on site at the event included a marked Chrysler K car and a marked Chevrolet Biscayne.
