Two NYPD cops, one a groom, killed in crash

SHANDAKEN, N.Y. » Two offduty New York City police officers — including one who had been married only hours before — were killed late Sunday in a one-car crash on Oliverea Road.

John M. Martinez, 39, of Hauppauge, and Michael Colangelo, 31, of Huntington Station, were killed in the crash.

State police said Martinez was driving a 2018 Maserati when at about 11:23 p.m. he went off the road and struck a tree, causing the car to overturn and land on its roof.

Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. A third person in the car who police say was not the bride suffered non-lifethreatening injuries and was taken to Albany Medical Center.

“As far as we can tell they were taking this car out for a ride,” said State Police Maj. Pierce Gallagher. “I feel comfortable saying that the speed was excessive.”

Authorities say the crash happened near a resort where Colangelo’s wedding had taken place.

The speed limit on the road is 40 mph and Gallagher said he believed the officers were not wearing seat belts, but the backseat passenger was. He said police were waiting autopsy and toxicology results.

The officers previously had worked together in the NYPD Special Operations Division. Martinez was most recently assigned to the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn.

Colangelo, who moved in with his girlfriend two or three years ago, was “very friendly, very outgoing,” neighbor Patti Orsini told Newsday. “He would always lend a helping hand when ... I was doing yard work and needed a little muscle.”

He was part of the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit canine team and Orsini said Colangelo “just loved that dog,” named Jimbo.

“He’d walk the dog around the neighborhood every day and say hello to everybody,” said another neighbor, Ray Spatafora. “He was a real good neighbor and a real good guy.”

The Rev. Michael Lopez, an NYPD chaplain, met with Martinez’s colleagues.

“He was a great, outstanding guy and they love him,” Lopez said, adding that fellow officers were taking the loss “very hard.”

Thomas Martinez, the victim’s brother, said the detective was “a good dad and a good husband” who spent his time off with his family.

Being a police officer “was what he wanted to do ever since he was a little kid,” he said.