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NYPD STATEMENTS

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An NYPD officer was struck and killed by a motorist on the Long Island Expressway in Fresh Meadows early Tuesday morning.

The officer is identified as Anastasios Tsakos, 43 years old. He was a 14-year veteran and member of the department’s Highway District 3.

Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a morning briefing that Tsakos was killed just before 2 a.m. while diverting traffic at the scene of a previous fatal collision at the LIE and Francis Lewis Boulevard.

Shea said the driver of a 2013 Volkswagen which struck him was a 32-year-old woman who was driving intoxicated and with a suspended license. 

She was apprehended soon after striking Tsakos and is now facing charges including vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of a deadly accident, and driving while impaired.

"We see here a horrendous pattern, people doing the wrong thing and other people dead because of it, and one of them a hero officer who did everything right in his life for us, and he is dead because of other people's negligence," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the briefing.

Officer Struck and Killed by Driver on LIE, Driver Arrested

Video by a Citizen user shows a large police presence in the area.

Incident reported at Horace Harding Expy.

The address reported for this incident has changed to I-495 & Francis Lewis Blvd.