An NYPD recruit was killed when he crashed his motorcycle on the Van Wyck Expressway in Briarwood on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
File photo by Gabriele Holtermamn
An NYPD recruit from Brooklyn was killed when he crashed his motorcycle on the Van Wyck Expressway in Briarwood on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Police from the 107th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision on the entrance rap of the Van Wyck Expressway from the Jackie Robinson Parkway around 6 a.m. and found the victim on the roadway.
Further investigation by the NYPD Highways District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined that a 21-year-old male was operating a 2008 Triumph Street Triple motorcycle on the entrance ramp from the eastbound Jackie Robinson Parkway to the northbound Van Wyck Expressway when he lost control of the motorcycle and struck the cement barrier on the right, ejecting him from the motorcycle. EMS responded and transported the victim to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He was later identified as Probationary Police Officer Caleb E. Park, from Himrod Street in Bushwick, who was traveling to the Detective Steven D. McDonald Police Academy in College Point. He was assigned to the NYPD Recruit Training Section (RTS) Command at the academy after joining the service in July.
“Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our police officer brother who passed away off duty this morning,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said. “Though his NYPD career was only beginning, he will always be remembered by his brothers and sisters who trained with him in the Police Academy. We will continue to support his family as they face this unimaginable loss.”
There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD’s Highway History Collision Investigation Squad.
Park is the second NYPD recruit who died in as many months after Probationary Police Officer Kamir A. Loubarria collapsed while working out at the police academy on Monday, Sept. 7. EMS rushed him to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 30-year-old married father with two young children grew up in Panama and emigrated to the United States in 2014 and settled in South Queens.