2 unarmed volunteer police officers shot dead in New York

Globe and Mail

NEW YORK — Two unarmed volunteer police officers were shot dead outside a strip of busy restaurants and bars near New York University on Wednesday night after they bravely followed a gunman who had killed a pizza parlour employee, the mayor said. The gunman was shot and killed later by regular police officers who raced to the scene in lower Manhattan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “Tonight was a horrible night for the New York Police Department and for our city,” he said. The bedlam began around 9 p.m., when the gunman went into a Greenwich Village pizzeria, asked for a menu and then shot an employee 15 times in the back, the mayor said.

The two auxiliary officers — civilian volunteers who wear uniforms, are unarmed and help patrol streets — followed the killer briefly before he turned his gun on them. A nearby restaurant worker, Nikola Simic, said he saw police officers swarm toward the middle of the street where the auxiliary officers were slain by the gunman.
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"Tonight was a horrible night for the New York Police Department and for our city," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said early Thursday. "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."

Pekearo and Marshalik were two of New York City's 4,500 auxiliary police officers. The volunteer officers are civilians, wear uniforms, and help patrol the streets. Only five other such officers have died in the line of duty in the city's history, and the last fatal incident was back in 1993.