NYPD Det. Brian Simonsen remembered a year after his friendly fire death

Love and pride.

Those emotions were at the heart of touching tributes for NYPD Det. Brian Simonsen on Wednesday at a Mass in Queens to mark one year since the Calverton resident's friendly-fire death.

The spacious Holy Child Jesus Church on 86th Avenue in Richmond Hill was packed with politicians, NYPD brass, Simonsen’s widow, Leanne, and his mother, Lynn, as well as other relatives. Also in the pews were the families of other cops who died in the line of duty, as well as those who knew and worked with Simonsen during his 19 years in the department.

“With Brian we learned three things, I think, very, very vividly,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told the standing-room-only audience. “One, how much he loved his family, his blood family for sure but his police department family as well. He showed it in so many ways, the love and the pride he had."

De Blasio said that love and pride at Simonsen's core was always on display in his hometown.

"The second thing we all earned was his love for his community, Calverton,” de Blasio said of the hamlet where Simonsen's neighbors had nicknamed him "Smiles" and spoke in the days after his death of his legendary barbecues, pool parties and whiffle ball games.

Third, the mayor said, was, of course, Simonsen’s love for the NYPD. It was a devotion to serve the citizens of the city, de Blasio continued, that motivated Simonsen to drive 70 miles each way from his home to the 102nd Precinct, just seven blocks from where the mayor spoke.

Simonsen’s death on the night of Feb. 12, 2019, as he and other cops investigated an attempted robbery of a Richmond Hill T-Mobile store stunned the NYPD. During the initial investigation, cops began firing. One errant round struck Simonsen in the chest, killing him. Police said Simonsen was not wearing a protective vest.

An internal investigation is ongoing but within days of Simonsen’s death, the NYPD initiated a review of tactical training to avoid future friendly-fire incidents.

Wednesday's Mass followed a weekend shooting rampage in the Bronx that wounded Officer Paul Stroffolino as he sat with his partner in a marked police van Saturday night and Lt. Jose Gautreaux about 12 hours later when the same gunman opened fired inside the 41st Precinct. Robert Williams, 45, of Evergreen Avenue in the Bronx, was arrested after the shootings and remains held without bail on multiple attempted murder charges, police said.

Neither Straffolino nor Gautreaux was seriously injured in the shootings, but if not for some luck and quick-thinking officers, officials said, the department would have been holding two cop funerals in same the week it honored Simonsen.

When it came his time to address the congregation Wednesday, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea recalled hearing initial reports about the shooting that took Simonsen's life as he prepared to leave work for the day in his previous job as the NYPD's chief of detectives. Reports from the scene just kept getting worse as more details came in, Shea said.

“Think of the lives he touched,” said Shea, referring to Simonsen and the organ donor program in which he participated.

Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison, who took over when Shea became commissioner, extolled Simonsen as the epitome of the dedicated cop, credited with more than 260 robbery arrests.

“He is the police," Harrison said. "He did what he had to do to take care of that community and keep them safe."

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.