Slain LI cop's wife: Love at first sight

For the wife of the Nassau County police officer accidentally killed by another cop, the hardest part is trying to explain to their two boys, ages 3 and 6, why he's not coming home.

"The older one is pretending it didn't happen," said Paula Breitkopf of her son Connor.

When the younger boy, Owen, says, "I want Daddy to come home," she has to tell him, "He's not coming home. He's in the clouds. Daddy got hurt."

But Owen doesn't want to hear that, she said in an interview on the eve of Officer Geoffrey J. Breitkopf's funeral in Selden Friday.

"He said, 'Put a Band-Aid on him. Please, please make him come home.' "

Breitkopf, 40, a member of the elite Bureau of Special Operations, was killed Saturday night in a "friendly fire" shooting in Massapequa Park.

Breitkopf was in plainclothes and carrying a rifle pointed down when he walked up to a home where Nassau officers minutes earlier had shot and killed a knife-wielding man. A Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officer mistook Breitkopf for a threat and shot him.

Thursday, as Paula Breitkopf, 39, sat at a folding table in her living room in Selden, she would not discuss the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.

Instead, she reminisced about the man she fell in love with as a college student.

At times, she paused to maintain her composure by holding back tears. At others she couldn't help but laugh, remembering a husband who knew how to cook, sew and iron.

"There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said and smiled.

Geoffrey Breitkopf's days off were packed with family events -- karate, swimming, playing football and baseball.

"Our calendar is still booked," Paula Breitkopf said.

Recently, the couple had started to talk about planning for a third child. "We were starting to try for a girl," she said, fighting back tears.

At the family home and at the nearby firehouse where Breitkopf was a volunteer, a steady stream of family, friends and police colleagues have been sharing stories about him. He was funny, he was a go-getter, he was straightforward and a quick learner.

To Paula Breitkopf, he was the love of her life.

They met while attending Suffolk County Community College 22 years ago. She, studying business management, was leaving after taking day classes. He, on his way to night classes in criminal law, held a door for her and struck up a conversation about an economics book she was carrying.

"He was different," she said, adding that words can't describe the special feeling the two 18-year-olds instantly shared.

"He was a gentleman. By the first date I knew I was going to marry him. I told him, 'I love you' on the second date. I'm surprised he didn't run away."

They dated for more than a decade, and got married in 2002. She said the two couldn't be more opposite.

"I'm shy and introverted. He's the center of attention." But she loved that about him.

"There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said. "He always had a hobby. When he got that hobby, he went nuts."

Friends said Breitkopf, a former BMW mechanic, loved to fix things and to tinker with his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

His best buddy, Mike Cosgrove, 39, another volunteer Selden firefighter, recalled the first time Breitkopf called to tell him he purchased a Pro-Line boat over the Internet two years ago.

"I'm like, 'What do you need a boat for? Don't you have enough toys?' "

Paula Breitkopf said she's not surprised by the outpouring of support she's gotten from her husband's friends and police brethren. She is proud when people she has never met before tell her what a great guy her husband was.

"He'd go to a party and when we left everybody in the room was his best friend," she said. "He was just amazing."