The night of March 14, 2007, was unseasonably warm to the point where spring, which was fast approaching later that month, had already arrived. It was a Wednesday, which meant, at least for me, a school night. I was in my last year as a 17-year-old senior at Fort Hamilton High School. It was an exciting year for me because I was debating what I wanted to do as a career. It was in that frame of mind that I decided to volunteer and become an NYPD Auxiliary police officer a few months earlier. I started a basic training course at my local NYPD 68th Precinct in October 2006 and graduated from the course with the highest grades in March 2007. On March 12, I was privileged to receive my NYPD Auxiliary Police identification card and seven-point-shaped Auxiliary Police shield. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.

On that Wednesday night of March 14, 2007, I was doing my homework in my bedroom. As was my normal practice, I had my television on and tuned into the Fox 5 New York 10 p.m. news. My aunt Janet came into my bedroom to put away some of my clothes in my closet. Suddenly, a breaking news broadcast came on as the broadcast began with a huge banner across the television screen: “Two NYPD Auxiliary Police Officers Shot in Greenwich Village.”

The news crew started showing aerial footage of the scene in Greenwich Village, where the streets were filled with NYPD vehicles with their flashing red lights lighting up the night sky. It was at that moment that my aunt stopped what she was doing and started to sit down on a chair with a concerned look on her face.

While I was doing my homework earlier that evening in Brooklyn, a couple of miles away in Manhattan, Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik were on routine foot patrol in the crowded, bustling neighborhood of Greenwich Village. The restaurants and bars were packed with crowds of people enjoying the spring-like weather. They were both young men who had struck up a friendship during their volunteering with the NYPD’s 6th Precinct Auxiliary Police Unit. APO Marshalik was in his 13th month of volunteer service, while APO Pekearo was in his fourth year of volunteer service. APO Pekearo grew up, worked and now also volunteered in Greenwich Village. APO Marshalik was a student at the nearby NYU campus. They both had strong, close connections to the neighborhood.

These young men were in the prime of their lives and felt the need to give back to the community. They both had dreams for the future. APO Pekearo worked at a local bookstore with his girlfriend and wanted to be an author. APO Marshalik wanted to be a NYPD officer at first, but had recently changed his career goal to that of being a public service prosecutor at a district attorney’s office. 

Later that night in Brooklyn, as the news broadcast continued, my aunt and I sat in silence, watching the news in disbelief. You could see she was concerned and looked at me with a look of “What have you gotten yourself involved with?” Amazingly, she never said anything to me. Once the newscast ended, she left my room without saying a word, which was rare for her. Being from Brooklyn, she has been outspoken and never hesitates to voice her opinion. In this instance, her actions spoke louder than words.

Around 11 p.m., another round of local newscasts followed with footage from the shooting scene in Greenwich Village, and both the mayor and NYPD commissioner holding a press conference to a shocked, horrified city. For New York City, where everything is possible in a city that never sleeps, the execution-style killing of two young volunteer NYPD Auxiliary police officers shocked even the most hardened New Yorkers, who have seen it all. Even 17 years later, the words said by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly during their news conference at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village echo to those who remember that long-ago fateful night:

“Tonight was a horrible night for the New York Police Department and for our city,” Bloomberg said. “Two Auxiliary police officers were killed in the line of duty, two men who volunteered their time to make our city the safest big city in America lost their lives helping to keep it exactly that way. What this indicates is that this tragedy, as horrific as it was, could have been a lot worse, and without the actions of our brave officers, most likely would have been.”

Kelly added, “The gunman fled down the street, where he encountered unarmed volunteer Auxiliary Police Officers Eugene Marshalik, 19 years old, and Nicholas Pekearo, 28 years old — two of the city’s unsung heroes, who, as part of our 4,500-strong Auxiliary Police program, serve without compensation, as the eyes and ears of this police department. The fact that more lives were not lost is due in no small measure to Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik.”

The next day, each member of the 68th Precinct Auxiliary Police Unit was called into the precinct stationhouse for a meeting with the commanding officer of the precinct and our Auxiliary police coordinator. The NYPD was in shock like the rest of the city and wanted to make sure all their volunteer Auxiliary police officers were safe. To their point, all of us auxiliaries, at least in the 68th Precinct, were asked if we wanted to stay on the volunteer Auxiliary police force. The cold-blooded reality of this noble volunteering on patrol in uniform unarmed was made clear the night before, and the NYPD wanted to do everything in its power to avoid a repeat incident. At the end of our Auxiliary Police Unit meeting, not one of our 59 volunteers, including myself or my recent graduating Auxiliary police class, raised our hands to quit. We all decided to stay on to continue to serve the NYPD, our community and our city.

The hardest part of this surreal experience for me was preparing for the NYPD funerals of APOs Marshalik and Pekearo. I had never worn my uniform before, and now, for the first time ever, I was going to wear it at the funerals of two of my fellow NYPD Auxiliary police officers, including one, Marshalik, who, at 19 years old, was only two years older than me. I was getting ready to graduate high school in a few months and start college in the fall. APO Marshalik was in the midst of his college experience while I was about to start mine.

Although both funerals were tragic to witness, unless you wore the blue uniform, no one could tell you how it feels to be in a “sea of blue” all around you with thousands of officers standing at attention where you can hear only a pin drop and helicopters only a few hundred feet above flying in a “missing-man formation.” It was a surreal tribute to a fallen comrade in blue.

I never regretted volunteering for my community and the NYPD Auxiliary Police. It was a huge part of my life for many years. I “retired” from volunteer policing in 2019 as an Auxiliary Police sergeant. In those 12 years of volunteer police service, I went from being a naive 17-year-old high schooler to a mature adult who has a federal career and is still volunteering, although for a different agency and volunteer mission these days.

On that fateful night in Greenwich Village, two young men in the prime of their lives, wearing the uniform of New York City Auxiliary police officers, unarmed, except for a radio and nightstick, confronted pure evil. Their heroism was displayed in delaying a mad gunman’s shooting rampage in the crowded streets of Greenwich Village that night. A selfless act of heroism that saved many lives but cost them their own. Following the recent 17th anniversary of March 14, 2007, many of those countless bystanders in the village that night, along with the family, friends and colleagues of NYPD Auxiliary Police Officers Marshalik and Pekearo, paused during a moment in their day to think … think of two heroes of New York City — two young men — who, by fate that spring-like night, served as their guardian angels in blue.