Sad memory

Familia slay recalls 1st female NYPD murder

THIRTY-THREE years before Officer Miosotis Familia was shot and killed, another woman in blue gave her life for the city.

Irma Lozada, who preferred to be called Fran, was a recently engaged 25-year-old transit police officer when she was shot and killed in Brooklyn in 1984. She was gunned down while trying to arrest a chain snatcher. Lozada was the first female officer killed in the line of duty.

The murder of Familia has brought back strong memories for retired NYPD Detective 2nd Grade Dennis Honor, 57, Lozada’s fiancé at the time.

“She hated being called Irma and always want me to call her ‘Fran,’ ” he recalled. “I would tease her by calling her ‘Irma’ from time to time.”

Honor, who retired in 2004, said Lozada viewed her job as a calling.

“You gotta remember back in the ’80’s, things were different than they are now,” he said. “So you had people who just considered it a job, and then you had people like Franny. It was a career for her, not a job.”

Alexander Bonds, 34, raged against police before he ambushed and shot Familia on July through a series of vacant lots in Bushwick. The cops got separated.

Lozada caught up with the teen and he struggled with her, ultimately grabbing her gun and shooting her to death.

“It’s a dangerous profession whether you’re a male or a female, and it was inevitable that it had to happen to a female officer,” Mayor Koch said at the time.

Lozada’s killer, Darryl Jeter, 19 at the time, remains in state prison on a life sentence. His next parole hearing is in 2019.

Lozada was a cop when being a woman on the police force was unusual.

“She rocked and rolled with the best of them,” Honor said. “She thought she was one of the guys. She was going to handle everything. What happened could have happened to anyone.”

After she was killed, some in the NYPD questioned whether women should be on patrol at all.

“She being the first female police officer (killed), we kind of still had that macho thing,” he said. “For her to get killed, for the haters, it was ‘See, I told you they A fund to aid the children of slain NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia has reached $153,027 — a total that includes an initial $10,000 donation from the Daily News, which launched the drive. Familia left behind a 20-year-old daughter and 12-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.