NYPD officer from Bronx killed while serving in Army in Afghanistan; loved ones honor his service
By Rocco Parascandola
Newsday
NEW YORK — A New York City undercover narcotics officer serving a second tour of duty with the Army in Afghanistan has been killed, police said yesterday.
Officer Deon Taylor’s family has been told that the 30-year-old reservist died in a roadside bombing Wednesday that also claimed the lives of other soldiers, police said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly offered condolences to Taylor’s family and friends in a written statement yesterday.
“Like so many of his fellow officers, Deon Taylor courageously served his city at home and his nation abroad,” Kelly said. “Officer Taylor was among the 258 members of the NYPD currently on military leave, many of them serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Taylor lived in the Longwood section of the Bronx with his mother and has a son, 8. He was engaged to be married next summer, according to his uncle, NYPD Det. Mo Weathers.
“He was a good young man,” Weathers said. “He went over there to do the right thing and train people. He served his country, his city and his state, his community.
“He was a father, a brother, a son.”
Taylor served four years in the Army before joining the NYPD in 2005. He was assigned to Brooklyn North Narcotics in August 2007 and worked to combat drug dealing in Bushwick and Williamsburg, according to a colleague.
Police officials said he was deployed to Afghanistan in January as a fire direction specialist, and Weathers said he was due home in December, in time for Christmas.
Taylor’s son and the rest of his family are in shock, Weathers said.
“We’re just holding on to God right now,” Weathers said. “We’re just in disbelief and grieving.”
Taylor grew up in the Bronx, attended SUNY Old Westbury and rooted for the Knicks, Weathers said.
“He was a man in every respect. He loved his country so much, he gave his life for it,” his grandfather, George Lewis, 83, a veteran of World War II, said outside the home Taylor shared with his mother yesterday.
A neighbor said the family had lived in the neighborhood for many years. “He was a really, really good guy,” said Carmen Acevedo, 27, of Longwood.
Acevedo said Taylor’s mother had been ill lately and couldn’t walk. “He was really close with his mother. She’s taking it really bad,” she said.
Taylor’s friend said his death “should have not happened.”
“He loved his country so much that he had to go and serve. My heart is hurting right now,” said James Houston, 54, a facilities manager for a Bronx law firm.
“You look for blame, and my blame goes straight to the White House,” he said.
Weathers, who had worked in narcotics, said he tried to talk Taylor out of joining the division.
“Deon Taylor was his own man. He wanted to make a change in the community and he wanted to see a change by taking drug dealers off the street.”
Taylor is the third NYPD officer to die overseas in recent years.
Officer James McNaughton, a member of the first Police Academy class to graduate after Sept. 11, was gunned down in 2005 by a sniper in Iraq. McNaughton, 27, was assigned to Transit District 2 in lower Manhattan. He served in the Army.
Last July 4, Lt. Daniel Farkas died in Afghanistan in a noncombat incident. Farkas, 42, worked at the 112th Precinct and was a first lieutenant in the National Guard.
Daniel Edward Rosen contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 Newsday