Pushes for Death Benefits
Kelly to 'Justice': Honor Auxiliaries

By REUVEN BLAU

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly March 26 urged a U.S. Department of Justice hearing officer to approve death benefits for Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas T. Pekearo and Yevgeniy Marshalik, who were fatally shot last year while trying to apprehend a murderer.

RAYMOND W. KELLY: 'Auxiliaries saved lives.'

"The denial is simply wrongheaded," Commissioner Kelly asserted during a press conference at 1 Police Plaza two days earlier.

Echoed by Schumer

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who sponsored the 2003 Public Safety Officers' Benefit legislation, also slammed the Justice Department at that press conference for denying the slain officers' families $300,000 each in benefits.

Mr. Schumer said that the DOJ had initially rejected 34 other similar claims from family members of fallen volunteer police officers and firefighters. "It may be that somebody in Justice is trying, on the cheap, to save money," he told reporters.

The Justice Department maintained that the slain men were not recognized as Police Officers under New York law because they did not have the power to arrest suspects beyond making a citizen's arrest.

NICHOLAS T. PEKEARO

"They are wrong," Senator Schumer asserted. "They are thwarting what Congress wanted, and are doing a grave disservice to the memory of two fine young New Yorkers and their families."

Commissioner Kelly pointed out that the slain Auxiliary Officers used NYPD radios, batons, and handcuffs and received more than 50 hours of law-enforcement training.

'Actions Meet Law's Spirit'

"Their selfless acts, which I believe prevented many other deaths, are precisely the type of conduct that the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act is intended to compensate," Commissioner Kelly testified. "The primary functions of the Auxiliary Police Officer are to be the 'eyes and ears' of the NYPD and to quickly report crimes and other emergencies as they see them on patrol."

The volunteer officers also enhance the presence of NYPD cops at special events or at emergency incidents by performing crowd and/or traffic control, Mr. Kelly said. "It cannot be denied that in performing these functions the Auxiliary Police Officers serve to help deter and reduce crime, and therefore are clearly in7volved in the law enforcement function," he testified.

YEVGENIY MARSHALIK

At the hearing, Commissioner Kelly planned to replay the surveillance video that displayed Officers Pekearo, 28, and Marshalik, 19, being gunned down by David Garvin as they tried to take cover behind parked cars.

Death Footage Unplayed

But hearing officer Inez Haller declined to watch the video and listen to the 911 tapes from that night, the Daily News reported.

Mr. Garvin shot the volunteer officers after he left De Marco's Pizzeria and Restaurant on West Houston and MacDougal Sts., where he murdered bartender Alfredo Romero Morales by pumping 15 bullets into his back.

Each officer's family has received $116,000 in compensation from the city. That figure includes $50,000 in Workers' Compensation and $66,000 through an executive order by Mayor Bloomberg.

But Officer Marshalik's father, Boris, said it wasn't about the money. "It's a question of recognition and a question of respect to the memory of my son and Nicholas," he told the New York Times.