Police Officer Matthew Dziergowski of the 123 Precinct, 39, had just finished setting up flares on the West Shore Expressway on Staten Island to divert traffic from an overturned tractor-trailer when he was killed by a speeding sport-utility vehicle early Sunday morning, February 14. Seconds before the crash, he screamed out a warning to three fellow cops who escaped in time.

"He was a hero who took evasive action to save the lives of the other police officers," Police Commissioner Howard Safir said.

"New York City lost a real hero in Matty," said Joe Frosch, a police union delegate. "He saved three cops' lives. This is the kind of cop you want to come to your house on a job."

Dziergowski, the first cop to die in the line of duty in 1999, left a pregnant wife and an 8-year-old son.