Fatal shoot at BBQ
THE NAMES of more than two dozen NYPD officers who made the ultimate sacrifice were added Friday to the department’s memorial wall at 1 Police Plaza.
Of the 27 cops honored, 24 died of 9/11-related illnesses.
Two others, Det. Miosotis Familia and Det. Steven McDonald, were shot in the line of duty.
An NYPD sergeant, Donald Conniff, who was robbed of a normal life by a drunken driver, had his name emblazoned on a bronze plate and given a place of distinction in the lobby of police headquarters.
Conniff, 50, died in December 2015 — 18 years after he suffered a traumatic brain injury Jan. 1, 1998.
He had wrapped up a New Year’s Eve detail and was on his way to a second job at City Hall when a drunken driver blew a red light and plowed into his car.
The drunk driver pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Conniff spent the rest of his life in a New Jersey rehabilitation center.
“His brothers and sisters said he was the ‘kind of guy you would want on the streets with you,’” de Blasio said.
Familia’s daughter Genesis Villella, 20, attended the ceremony with her 12-year-old twin siblings Peter and Delilah Vega.
“It’s a little painful because it literally set in stone what happened to her,” she said. “But it brings me joy to know that her legacy will be remembered forever.”
On July 4, a madman shot and killed Familia, 48, as she sat in an NYPD van in the Bronx.
McDonald, 59, died in January 2017 — 31 years after a 15-year-old gunman’s bullet left him paralyzed.
Despite his condition, McDonald continued to work for the NYPD and gave speeches about resilience and forgiveness — like the forgiveness he gave the teen who shot him — across the globe.
“There is no greater example of inspiration,” de Blasio said about McDonald.
His widow, Patti Ann McDonald, called the ceremony “beautiful and bittersweet.”
“Walking in and seeing his name on the wall — it was something very special.” A MAN died early Friday after he was blasted in the head during a late-night barbecue at a Brooklyn park, cops said.
Johnny Mathis, 29, was fatally shot in the Eleanor Roosevelt Playground near Dekalb Ave. and Lewis Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 1:40 a.m., police said. He was rushed to Woodhull Hospital where he died.
Mathis’ grief-stricken mother, 66, told the Daily News she learned of her son’s death when a panicked friend ran into her building at the Eleanor Roosevelt Houses at about 2 a.m.
“Someone ran up to my apartment and told me he was shot,” the mom said. “When I came over they were already working on him. They were trying to save him, pumping his heart.”
The heartbroken mother, who wished not to be named, won’t be able to forget watching paramedics trying to save her son through the ambulance window, she said.
Mathis, the youngest of five and the father of a 5-year-old boy, was an innocent bystander the gunman mistakenly targeted, she said.
There was a scramble on the street after the gunfire erupted.
“All I saw was three or four guys running from the park talking about how someone got shot,” said Abdul Ali, 23, a clerk from a nearby deli.
A pair of Nike sandals and a cellphone were scattered beside a trail of blood about 10 feet from the playground's jungle gym.
Cops have not made any arrests.