Slain in service (FDNY VIA FACEBOOK)
Police Officer Miosotis Familia died early Wednesday morning enabling the safe celebration of America’s freedoms on Independence Day and late into the night, serving among thousands of police thickly deployed across the city.
She never made it home from her Bronx post to her children elsewhere in the borough, because an ex-con with a .38 shot her dead.
Whatever deranged motive drove the killer to stride up to a NYPD mobile command vehicle and fire a fatal round into Familia’s face, the world’s greatest detectives will ferret it out from a dead assassin’s trail.
Never in doubt was the guiding star for Officer Familia. She joined the NYPD at the age of 36, the outer limits of eligibility, because she sought to protect and serve her city.
Here's how to help children of slain NYPD cop Miosotis Familia
A single mother of three, formerly a nurse and Red Cross medical responder, at 48 she worked the Bronx’s tough 46th Precinct, at an age when many cops are putting in for retirement.
Familia had just begun her overnight shift when fate put her in the path of atrocity.
In grieving, this city thanks Officer Familia for her 12 years of service, alongside the officers who lined up to salute her body at dawn.
Her years on the force coincided with sturdy declines in crime — and, more recently, the rise of a sick wave of madmen’s assaults and murders committed against the guardians of public safety merely for the uniforms they wore.
The deliberate, premeditated killing of Familia brutally recalls the slaughter of Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in their Brooklyn patrol car, by a man out for cop blood, as well as fatal attacks in Iowa and Dallas.
The single shot fired into the NYPD van’s glass window, at first confused with celebratory firecrackers, follows this deadly trail of police killed for the offense of being police.
Now, once again, flags will be lowered and black ribbons affixed to badges. The 46th Precinct stationhouse will be hung with mournful bunting.
Whatever led Familia’s killer down his road to hell, no possible defense of his atrocity, no sliver of empathy, can stand.
And no words can thank Officer Familia enough for her service and sacrifice to this city.
To donate to the Daily News' fund for Miosotis Familia's family with credit card or PayPal, go to nydn.us/FamiliaFund or send payments electronically to Daily News Charities, account number 9387-575-837, routing number 021-000-322 or make checks payable to Daily News Charities, Inc. and mail to:
POLICE OFFICER MIOSOTIS FAMILIA FUND
New York Daily News
4 New York Plaza
New York, NY 10004
Attn: Daily News Charities