Police Officer Anthony Mosomillo Way
circa 1995
Source

Police Officer Anthony F. Mosomillo (1962-1998) served the NYPD for more than 14 years, and was killed in the line of duty while attempting to serve a bench warrant on a parolee who had failed to appear in court.

Born in Brooklyn on January 30, 1962, Mosomillo graduated from Lafayette High School in 1981, then joined the NYPD in 1984. He met his second wife, Margaret, on a blind date in 1988, and the couple married four years later. Their family moved to Glendale in 1996, though he continued to work for precincts in Brooklyn, and is said to have returned to Bensonhurst for haircuts and bagels.

Mosomillo was a warrants officer at Brooklyn's 67th Precinct on May 26, 1998, when he and his partner, Officer Miriam Sanchez-Torres, went to arrest Jose Serrano at his East Flatbush apartment, because Serrano had missed a court date following an arrest on a minor drug charge, violating the terms of his parole. When the officers arrived and found Serrano, a gunfight ensued, Serrano having reportedly gotten a hold of Sanchez-Torres' gun, and Mosomillo and Serrano fatally shot one another. Officer Sanchez-Torres carried Officer Mosomillo out of the apartment and drove him to the hospital.

More than 14,000 police officers and state troopers attended Mosomillo's funeral, which was held at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Ridgewood—the same church where he had married Margaret six years before. In addition to his wife, Mosomillo left behind two daughters, Marie and Francesca, and his brother, Salvatore.

Francesca followed in her father's footsteps, joining the NYPD in 2019, gaining the rank of detective in 2024. She was issued her father’s old police officer’s shield number, 20316, on her badge.

An area of basketball and handball courts in Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn are also named for Mosomillo. Then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dedicated the Anthony Mosomillo Memorial Courts on Bay Eighth Street and Cropsey Avenue in 1999, not long after the Mayor and the Police Commissioner honored Mosomillo by presenting his family with the Medal of Honor, the highest honor bestowed by the Police Department.

City Councilmember Joann Ariola proposed this street co-naming in 2024. It was dedicated on November 22, 2024.

Sources:

"Committee Report of the Infrastructure Division," The Council of the City of New York, June 18, 2024

Michael Cooper, "Officer Is Killed in Brooklyn; Suspect, a Parolee,Also Dies," The New York Times, May 27, 1998

Margaret Ramirez, "Laid to Rest," Newsday, May 31, 1998, via Newspapers.com

Larry Celona and Alex Oliveira, "NYPD Will Promote Children of 2 Heroes Gunned Down, Paralyzed in Line of Duty" New York Post, April 25, 2024

"Mayor Giuliani Dedicates Anthony Mosomillo Memorial Courts ," Archives of the Mayor's Press Office, accessed January 25, 2024

Joann Ariola NYC Council District 32, Facebook, November 22, 2024,