Retired NYPD Chief Anthony “Tough Tony” Izzo drowned to death in his pool on Long Island, Suffolk County police said Saturday.
Police arrived at Izzo’s home at Malverne Ave. and Illsley Place in Stony Brook around 7:45 p.m. Friday after a family member called 911. Officers pulled Izzo, 75, who was unresponsive, out of the pool and performed CPR on him.
EMS transported him to Stony Brook University Hospital where he died.
No criminality is suspected in the former high-ranking cop’s death, Suffolk County police said.
“Chief Izzo dedicated decades of his life to protecting New Yorkers and supporting the men and women of the NYPD,” the Detectives’ Endowment Association said on social media.
Jesse Ward for New York Daily News
Anthony Izzo, the NYPD’s chief of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, doing his retirement “walkout” from NYPD Headquarters at One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan in 2014.
Izzo was the son of a New York City police officer, starting his NYPD career in 1968 as a 17-year-old police trainee. Three years later, he became a police officer, eventually making captain in 1994. In 2006 he was promoted to chief of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau, according to QNS.
Along the way, Izzo served as commanding officer of the 115 Precinct in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1995, followed by C.O. of the 75th Precinct in East New York, Brooklyn, starting in 1998.
In addition, Izzo was a Man of the Year of NYPD Columbia, a fraternal organization representing Italian descent and heritage in the NYPD.
“Chief Izzo was more than a distinguished member of the NYPD,” the group said on social media. “He was a Lifetime Member of the Columbia Association, a former Man of the Year honoree and a longtime supporter and friend of our Association.”